Dead Space: New Genesis
by Lorch
Summary: The Salarian STG picked up a distress call in the Tau Ceti Sector and the Normandy is sent to investigate it. Why is there a ghost ship in the middle of nowhere? Can the Normandy's crew deal with an insane engineer and the horrors that haunt him? And what is that biomass covering the ship?
1. The Deadening

**Ch 1: The Deadening**

"Isaac, wake up."

Fear and rage wash away the fatigue, in a flash, Isaac is lucid and tense, the memory of death and carnage fades but still gnaws at his mind. The doctor sees his anxiety and tension and makes soothing sounds to calm him  
"Shh, Isaac i-it's okay. W-whatever that was, it can't hurt you, it isn't real. You were h-having a nightmare. Remember where you are! Earth! In the Angel's M-Mercy Hospital. You were transferred here heavily s-sedated a week ago, do you remember?"  
Of course he remembers, he's not insane. After those army types grilled him with questions for who knows how long in that timeless dungeon they call a holding cell, he was told he was being sent to Earth, to the Angels Mercy. At first he didn't understand why they didn't just label him insane and throw him in a padded cell. His questioner, who apparently had aspirations to torture people with his nasally, bored voice, cleared up his misunderstandings. The military were offering him an olive branch. Isaac keeps his mouth shut and he doesn't have to spend the rest of his life dreaming of something better than four walls and a corner to shit in. Knowing he had no other options, he took the deal.  
"Yes, I remember. Of course I remember." The irritation is clear in his voice and he doesn't attempt to hold it back. The memory of that bastard with his slick hair and his stupid voice was enough to keep him angry for days. The doctor sees his agitation and endeavours to use a calm, reasonable voice. It's a good try but the stutter gives him away. He's scared of the psycho engineer and Isaac knows it. This does not improve Isaac's mood.  
"N-now I know y-you are probably w-wondering w-"  
"BOO" Isaac roars at the top of his lungs, tensing against his restraints in the doctors direction. With a terrified cry the doctor stumbles backwards over the stool he was using and lands on his backside with a loud thud. Before Isaac could do anything more than feel a grim satisfaction, the door to his room slides open.  
"Having fun scaring our intern Mr Clarke? Feel better now?" The doctor walks in and stands at the foot of Isaacs bed staring calmly into Isaacs eyes. It's clear from his posture that he is used to this situation. This is better, someone who won't crap themselves over nothing.  
"Much." Isaac retorts, examining the new arrival. Tall. Very Tall. As well as thin.  
"Well Doctor Stick, what can I do for you?" Isaac, still enjoying the interns embarrassment was feeling a little cocky.

"Hm. You are a very intimidating restrained man aren't you Mr Clarke?" The bored tone of the doctor made it clear he wasn't impressed by Isaacs bravado. Motioning to the Intern to stand up and show some backbone and not be scared of a man in restraints, which Isaac found impressive to do without saying anything, the doctor asked Isaac to apologise. Which, after some deliberation, he did.  
"Now, I am Doctor Hayde and you have been transferred here to undergo a proper medical examination. I have asked the higher-ups to authorise a psychiatric evaluation as well after that incident during your arrival but they refused. Apparently a specialist is being flown here to handle your case. A Doctor Naomi if I recall." The Doctor turned to leave, intern in tow.  
"What incident?"  
"Now, for the duration of your stay here, I expect you to be on your best behaviour. You aren't an animal, so don't act like one."  
"What Incident?"  
Pausing at the door, Hayde looked back at Isaac with a very serious look.  
"...Try to keep the intern scaring to a minimum during your stay Mr Clarke."  
With that the door slid shut and Isaac was left in his room alone. Still restrained he noticed immediately. Apparently whatever this "Incident" was, was enough to have them scared of him. It also seems that the military were keeping up their end of the deal. This specialist was without a doubt their own agent being sent in to mark him off as sane. Then he was free. Free to have nightmares. Alone. Free to know the truth, free to know that if he dared speak up he would be labelled insane and thrown into a padded cell...  
"Fuck."

* * *

Isaac sat up, heaving, in his bed. Another memory burns bright, death and fear once again being his morning breakfast. Naomi was coming again today. His Psychiatrist, the one the military sent to label him sane. Only she hadn't done that yet and it had been at least two weeks since she had arrived. She had made it clear upon arrival that he was going to answer every question she had. It seemed that in her eyes, Isaac was a fascinating subject, to be thoroughly examined before being released. Standing up, Isaac began his morning exercises, the time spent in transit had atrophied many parts of his body and, after knowing everything he knows, he knew being fit was always a benefit.  
"Good Morning Isaac, I brought you some food" The door slid open to reveal Naomi. Her curvaceous body marred by the fact he was her prisoner.  
"Naomi," Isaac greeted her "Is Hayde still head over heels in love?" He asked drily, Wishing Doctor Stick hadn't taken an interest in her, which, in turn, caused him to have an interest in Isaac.  
"Oh the poor fellow, he keeps giving me vague assertions that he is of a royal line to try and interest me. Too bad though, he'll never interest me as much as you do Isaac." She said with a smile, a feverish look in her eyes.  
There it was again, this strange attachment she seemed to be developing. Once she realised he was exercising she began bringing him food whenever she visited. All he had to do to get something was hint at it. The restraints went first, then the restriction on his access to the hospital ground, now more food every day. Isaac was beginning to find that attachment very useful-  
Breathing deeply of the room's gym-sock smell Naomi's smile widened,  
-As well as a little bit creepy.  
"Now," Naomi said, settling into a chair next to his bed, suddenly all business, "You were telling me more of the Ishimura, its inhabitants, as well as the cause of all this business." She gave him a level look. "Tell me everything."  
"What more is left to tell?" Isaac demanded, resurgent memories flooding back to assault him once more, "I was part of the team that answered the Ishimura's distress call; we boarded the ship and were subsequently attacked. The offenders killed everyone except for me. I barely escaped alive, then your military boys picked me up, floating in dead space."  
"Yes yes, I know all that. Tell me more of the creatures that attacked you."  
A clawed hand shot out of the darkness and slashed his helmet,  
"What form did they take?"  
Jerking backwards, Isaac got a good look at the creature, standing before him was a walking, emaciated corpse, hell-bent on his death,  
"How did they spread? Did t******-"

Naomi's words fade as suddenly Isaac is back on the Ishimura, fighting off walking corpses with daggers for hands. The servo's in his RIG suit whine as he slams his foot into the paste that used to be one of the creatures head. Again, again, again and again until he is certain the thing is dead. Panting from the exertion he reared up, heart pounding, as he heard a roar in the distance. That fucking thing was after him again, no matter what he tried it just wouldn't die, everything just grew back. The worst part is, it was getting quicker at finding him, he needed-"Isaac?"- to find a way to –"Isaac!"- kill it before it-

The full-bodied slap brought him back to the present, he was tensed, his entire body had clenched up and sweat was draining off him like someone had thrown up the gates on a dam.  
Staring at him with wide, round eyes, Naomi was practically drooling,  
"You just went there, didn't you?" The excitement in her voice would normally have repulsed him but he was too busy being clenched up from fear, "Tell me what you saw!"

"I saw... I saw too much. Far too much death, it's everywhere on that ship. It infected everything including me. I'll never escape these memories, never. The only thing I have left is preventing others from experiencing what I did. This is why you need to label me sane! I need to get out of here and make sure that this never happens again!" By the end of his tirade Isaac was shouting, fear and anger once again laying waste to his more respectable emotions.  
"Isaac you know I can't do that, even though it is my job to do so. We must go through the procedures," at this she held up a hand to forestall his protests, "quickly I know, but they must be done nonetheless. Especially after the incident of your arrival. I understand you were stressed but by god, what were you thinking?"  
"What incident!?"  
"It doesn't matter anymore. What matters is we need to find a way to prove to Hayde, as well as to any other person who is interested, that you DID go through evaluation and that every effort WAS made to check your sanity.  
"Then haven't we done enough!?"  
"No, not yet. I have an idea that might work though." Naomi paused, thinking deeply. "In the mean time, tell me more of these creatures and the Ishimura. What controlled them? Did they have a hive-mind like quali-"  
White noise. It's all just white noise.

* * *

Another morning, another nightmare. Another bedcover drenched in sweat. It had been days, maybe weeks since Naomi offered the hope of freedom in the form of her "Idea". In that time she had gleaned as much as she could of the Ishimura and its nightmarish inhabitants from him. He felt like he had been dry-washed, then hung out to dry! The stupidity of it all irritated him the most. All she had to do was request the conversation he had with his original questioner and she would have all the answers she wanted. Feeling exasperated with Naomi, Isaac began his morning exercises. He had achieved a level of fitness he was comfortable with, if not proud of. Naomi hadn't commented but he could feel her eyes on him in that creepy, possessive manner of hers. Isaac was getting slightly worried by her seeming obsession with him.  
The door slid open once again to reveal Naomi, with her customary gift of food. It seemed to Isaac she was turning up more or less during or at the end of his exercises every day. She seemed slightly disappointed to see Isaac had kept his shirt on but that didn't stop her from smelling the air once again.  
Whatever, thought Isaac, Its better then walking corpses I guess.  
He was still, slightly, creeped out.  
"We're nearing the end of this facade Isaac, soon you'll be free. Just one trial left to complete."  
Isaac's heart stopped, his mind went blank, he had spent long hours agonising over his incarceration only to be told his freedom was near. Laughing he, went to hug Naomi, thought better of it and covered it by accepting the food from her.  
"What's the test?! Let's do it right now!"  
"You're going up into space to work on a science orbital as an engineer!" Smiling, Naomi dropped this bombshell.  
Isaac's heart stopped for a different reason this time.  
"...What?"  
"It's to prove to whoever examines the case next that you were thoroughly tested. This trial, once completed, shows that you are capable of doing your old job without breaking down."  
"But I-"  
"Isaac! It's either space or stay in the hospital forever!" Naomi's usual demeanour was gone, replaced with a severity that surprised Isaac.  
"...Fine."

* * *

"What is it with you and falling asleep everywhere Isaac? Wake up, we're here." Naomi nudged him awake. "Here" turned out to be the ESO: Inara. The research vessel where Isaac would float about repairing things until he was judged sane by Naomi. Great.  
"What is it they do here exactly?" Asked Isaac.  
"Oh, the part of the orbital that you will be stationed in is telescience. The manipulation of space-time." At this, Isaac gave her The Look. "Don't look at me like that, you won't be a test subject. Besides that, Dr Cleark, the man in charge, hasn't had a breakthrough in a long time."  
"Whatever, the faster this is over with the better." Isaac grumbled. Settling back into his seat Isaac jumped when a loud synthetic female voice screeched over the ships speakers.  
"DOCKING CLAMP ATTACHED. SHIP DOCKING AT ESO-INARA"  
Isaac had forgotten how much he hated the orbital's ship board computers. Machines that pretend to be intelligent to confuse people. Sounded a lot like some scientists and religious types he knew.

Dr Cleark turned out to be a rather chubby, short man, with a cheerful demeanour as well as an explosively flowing white beard. His white scientists lab coat looked as though it couldn't possibly be buttoned up around his girth. The coat was laid over the top of a plain, red shirt. Exactly what I need, Isaac thought, Santa in space. Isaac stared at the crimson shirt, fighting back more vivid memories.  
Extending hands in greetings the two men shook and had a short conversation about what Isaac would be doing. Basic repairs it sounded like. He was restricted to this part of the orbital for the duration of his stay. Under no circumstances was he to mess with any part of the valuable machinery found in the labs, nor was he to enter, under any circumstances, the restricted areas of the orbital.  
"Just how big IS the orbital?" Isaac was intrigued at the idea of a restricted area on a tiny orbital.  
"Two kilometres." Answered Dr. Cleark promptly.  
Isaac's face remained the same but he felt as though the bottom of his stomach drop. The largest civilian orbital he knew of was the ESO Kintae, measuring in at 1.5km. He knew this because his Chief Engineer proudly boasted the fact that they were serving on the largest civilian orbital in existence.  
"Right...Give me a map, show me the areas I can and can't enter so I don't accidently end up there. Until then, I'll be in my quarters."

Walking to his quarters, which one of the few scientists he had seen was kind enough to point out for him, he noticed that Naomi was quartered close by. Her door was open and light from a monitor was spilling out into the poorly lit hallway. Bored and restless, he moved over to the door when he heard Naomi talking.  
"I know, i'll be careful. Hayde, I want you to stop worrying about me. Yes I know he is insane." A derisive laugh flowed out of her room, "Of course he is, human corpses devolving in a matter of moments then attacking others? Absolutely ludicrous." Naomi paused "Hayde. Listen, when we return from this orbital I wot be returning to the Hospital. Im sorry Hayde, this is goodbye." With a quick, loud beep, the connection was cancelled. Just as Isaac was about to confront her about her questioning his sanity, this sudden derision wasn't in keeping with her character, he heard another connection go through.  
"I have him. He is at the other end of the orbital. He doesn't suspect anything. I know. Yes, taking this woman's identity was easy, we should consider doing it more often. Our prophet will soon be with us all. I will keep Isaac safe until then. Destroy the unbelievers if they oppose you. Death is only the Beginning and he will Make us Whole."  
Another beep, another connection cut. Isaac heard her approaching and bolted to his cell.  
Sitting on his bed, Isaac was trying, somewhat unsuccessfully, to stave off a panic attack. Naomi, or whatever her name really is, was trying to keep him safe for some sinister reason, there was someone on this orbital that wanted him. He gave himself three guesses as to who

"Isaac? There you are, you've talked to the doctor have you? Good. Get to work on fixing whatever is wrong here. There is a RIG suit just down the hall, it's where the old engineer used to work. There is a few tools you might need in there already. You also need to do a space walk and examine the outside of the orbital. These are the conditions to complete your examination and be announced sane. I bet you're excited." At this, she smiled endearingly. "Here are the maps you asked for" Naomi's smile broadened and her proverbial tail started wagging. Isaac was doing his best to keep his growing revulsion hidden. He nodded and moved off immediately. Suiting up in a RIG suit gave him an odd sense of comfort. The helmet covering his face gave him a feeling of safety. Checking the maps he noticed immediately that the areas he was restricted from were missing completely, names and all, except for blacked out borders were the area he had access to connected to a restricted zone. With a growing sense of foreboding Isaac notified Dr. Cleark that he was ready for work and was given some odd jobs to do. During this time he acquired a few bits and pieces here and there, he knew that he would be needing some kind of hidden weapon now. Whatever undoubtedly diabolical scheme was going to happen was clearly happening soon and, this was the important part, he was directly involved.  
The day went fast and the ship cycled it's time to night but Isaac knew he wouldn't be getting any sleep. Upon arriving back at his small engineering office he was accosted by Naomi.  
"Isaac, I want you to get a full night's sleep. You have a long day ahead of you and you'll need to be bright and ready for it in the morning."  
Steeling himself, he managed to keep his tone level when he replied.  
"Fine Naomi, first though there are a few things I need to do to the suit, it's an old model and I don't feel comfortable in it. Don't want me breaking down and killing you now do we?" This was delivered in the most deadpan voice he could muster. Naomi was slightly unsettled by something in Isaac's eyes as he said this and bade him goodnight.

Isaac spent most the night-cycle modifying the RIG suit, reinforcing it and attaching a hidden plasma cutter under his right arm. To the untrained eye it would simply appear as part of the suit's clutter but at the flick of his wrist and the press of a button it would arm and fire an extremely powerful, focused plasma shot. He only had a single shot. Adding the capacity for more would have made it extremely bulky and unwieldy, as well as overtly obvious.  
Using the precious little "Night" time left he snuck into the unmanned security section in his part of the orbital. There he found a crew manifest as well as several maps. What immediately stood out to him was the fact that though he had only seen several scientists as well as a single security guard, who was currently sleeping in his cell, the crew manifest said that there were over 70 people on board. Almost half of them were labelled as guards. Checking the maps available he found that they provided more information about the local area then the ones he had received. They showed a larger portion of area but they weren't immune to having restricted areas. He was fairly certain that the maps showed only half of the orbital with no clues at all as to what was happening at the other end.  
As he was thinking about this the lights came on and the day cycle resumed. Quickly he placed everything back and got to his room as fast as he could.

Naomi once again was at his door, bright and early to wake him up. So she was surprised by Isaac walking up to her in full RIG gear.  
"Didn't you sleep at all? You know you should rest, we don't want you getting hurt" The genuine care in her voice scared Isaac a little as he knew a semblance of the truth now. This woman's obsession with him stemmed from something much darker than a simple love of broken minds.  
"You'll be doing your space walk today." She laid a hand on his chest and leant onto him, whispering "be sure to stay safe out there, I don't want to lose you"  
Thoroughly creeped out, Isaac nodded and made his way to the airlock. Reasoning that the only way to get off the orbital would be to do what she said and make damn sure he didn't fall into any traps her friends might have placed out there to snare him.  
Walking on the outside of the orbital was a relaxing experience. Once more he felt freedom as he used the RIG suit to float around. Oddly enough, there were no oddities on the outside, nothing that shouldn't be there. No damage to lure him at all. He was just about to report as such when Naomi voice blasted into his ears.  
"Isaac! Bad news, the airlock circuitry shorted and the door won't open. You'll have to go to the airlock at the end of the ship and enter through there."  
"No, it should be fine, I can easily open it from the outside, it's a simple matter of rewiring th-"  
"You can't, I've already asked the other engineers, apparently the outside circuitry is also fried. There is no point in you delaying any further, just head on over to the other airlock. I'll notify their security officer up there to let you in."  
"Other Engineers?" Isaac asked, perplexed as he had no idea there were Engineers besides himself nearby.  
"Damnit Isaac, just do as I say!"  
With that, the connection closed.  
Not one to be foiled by fried circuitry, Isaac made his way back to the airlock he knew to be a safe entrance. To his surprise, Naomi was right, the airlock was completely inaccessible from the outside. The circuitry on the outside wasn't just fried. It was completely irreparable. Like someone took a pulse rifle to it.  
He had to go to the other airlock to get inside, where god knew what was waiting for him.  
Shit.

* * *

"Im at the airlock now." Isaac reported over the radio.  
"Good" Naomi replied "there will be a few security guards waiting for you on the other side. Don't panic. They are there for your protection while you are in this restricted area. I'll meet you there soon."  
"How do you have access to the restricted ar-?"  
The connection closed with a click. Damn it. Damn it all to damnation and fuck. Armed guards, a mysterious restricted zone, Dark Agendas and a sycophantic psychiatrist  
"I fucking hate my life"

Entering the airlock he found himself surrounded by half a dozen guards. Their light, red clothing taught over muscle-bound bones of steel. Fighting his way out suddenly became a last-ditch scenario. Motioning for him to follow, their leader moved on. With a rough shove in the back, Isaac was forced to follow. They led him past several areas full of scientific apparel and machinery. What struck Isaac immediately was the morgue-like quality some areas had. He caught quick glimpses of several desiccated corpses throughout the trip. They arrived at a closed door at the end of a corridor marked "Area 1". Thrust through the door forcefully Isaac stumbled onto a strange scene. A large amount of people surrounding Naomi and a man he had never met before, arguing loudly, it soon became clear what. The man was still speaking when Isaac entered the room  
"-e is a heretic! A non-believer and a destroyer of everything we hold dear! You've talked to him and you yourself have admitted to the fact that he hates us!"  
"He is just misguided you stupid fool!" Naomi shouted "He is blind to the truth and it is our sacred duty to show him the right path!"  
Quickly surveying the area Isaac found nothing he could use for safety if things turned sour. There was a large metal panel running along one wall which seemed to open out into a much bigger room as well as some controls nearby that undoubtedly controlled the panel. Any thoughts he had towards making a plan to escape abruptly flew away when he heard what the two were arguing about.  
"-e is not the one!" The man screamed, face turning red in anger.  
"He is!" Naomi retorted "Isaac is our prophet, Michael Altman, reborn!" With this, she turned and pointed directly at Isaac. All heads turned to look his way, some with awe and adoration, others with hate and disgust, a small minority looked on impassively.  
This all registered with Isaac before Naomi's words registered in his mind.  
"...What?!"  
Naomi, not one to be flustered, immediately launched into a speech about how Isaac, someone who can resist the effects of the Marker, had the exact same traits as the Unitologists dead prophet, Michael Altman. The simple fact that Isaac was resistant to the marker was enough proof to Naomi that he was, indeed, the prophet reborn. This explained why she obsessed over him so much. It was at this moment that Isaac realized he had walked into a room full of Unitologist zealots. Many of who seemed to be in agreement with Naomi. The ones that were at the forefront of Isaac's mind though were the those who did not agree. These fellows did not seem to like Isaac in the least and Isaac counted himself lucky to have overheard Naomi's conversation and to have seen the shadier parts of the orbital, he was sure that if he did not already have deep suspicions then this information would have left him speechless for a little while before he could size up size up his situation  
Naomi was once again talking, trying to rile up the zealots and turn them to her way of thinking. "You have all been brought here today because you are ALL influential members of our religion, who know the truth about Altmans misguided past, however some of you have been led astray by this foolish man here!" she exclaimed pointing at the man who had been arguing with her earlier. " This fool knows nothing of The Marker and cannot even imagine its splendour. Today, we are aboard this vessel to witness the unveiling of the future! Today! We witness the fruits of our labour coming to being! At last, TRUE CONVERGENCE IS AT HAND!" Ending her speech on this triumphantly loud note, she slammed her hand down on the panel controls, making the panel slowly slide open. To Isaacs mounting horror, he recognised what he was looking at. A miniature Marker, almost formed. The Unitologists roared in unison, their approval making the making the very universe seem to shudder in collective fear of the madness of men. Isaac knew he had to get out of that room, get away from the crazy and find a way to destroy that Marker. A Marker in the orbit of EARTH for Gods sake! The psychotic bastards intended to spread the infection to the planet, the corpses in the orbital that he saw weren't JUST corpses, they were Necromorphs that had been dissected and studied. They fully intended to commit genocide on their own fucking race! By the time Isaac had finished thinking this, he was out the door, a pistol stolen from an unsuspecting guard in his hand. He rushed into the maze that was the restricted zone intent on finding a way to stop them.

* * *

The Unitologists were just winding down from their victory shout when Naomi stopped and suddenly tensed. Everyone in the room immediately felt in danger and all eyes were on Naomi. Her eyes were on the spot where Isaac USED to be.  
"...Where is Isaac?" She asked calmly of the guards. Sensing trouble immediately looked to the fellow that was supposed to keep a hold of him and handed him the responsibility of having lost their reluctant prophet  
"I...he...I don't know ma'am"  
"You don't know?" Naomi said sweetly, slowly walking towards the guard.  
"Y-yes ma'am. I t-think that he took the chance to escape during our celebration-"  
"DO you think that do you?" Naomi's voice dripped with sinister sweetness. "Is there anything ELSE you'd like to THINK about while you're at it?" Slowly she slipped her hand into her pocket.  
"Ma'am...I...I think he stole my pisto-" Naomi was on the man in a flash, grabbing hold of the back of his head she rammed a scalpel down into his neck. The until-now silent audience audibly gasped as the man toppled backwards with Naomi clinging to him, stabbing again and again and again. Venting her grief and anger on the guards throat until all that was left was a shredded pound of meat. Rearing up, covered in blood, she screamed with a force of almost godlike fury.  
"FIND. HIM. NOW."

* * *

For some reason, Isaac couldn't hear the sounds of pursuit. All the better, he thought, I'll be gone before they catch up. Isaac had to find a way to stop them from completing whatever their plan might be. He can't crash the ship into the planet, there is a chance the marker might survive. He can't overload the orbital's reactor, it wasn't nuclear powered and there is a chance the Marker might survive an indirect explosion. Before he could properly stop and think about a way to destroy the marker, he had to get past the Unitologist bastards. The problem was, he had no idea how to do that. He was unfamiliar with the layout of the area and didn't know what to expect. He needed to be on more familiar ground. This meant getting back to the Telescience area. He had spent the previous night-cycle memorising the layout whilst in the security guards checkpoint. He knew the ins and outs of the area very well and knew that his tools were right nearby.

The problem was getting BACK to Telescience. He couldn't spacewalk because not only would it be too slow, the airlock was undoubtedly still destroyed. He couldn't take the obvious route straight there through the halls, the Unitologists might have been caught unawares once but they would undoubtedly post guards everywhere in the area to ensure he doesn't escape. Remembering something back from his apprenticeship days, he was reminded that the majority of Orbital's like the one he was currently on had a long maintenance shaft that ran the entire length of the station. It was designed so that engineers would have ease of access to the entire station. Immediately Isaac looked for a map of the area, he found one nearby in one of the hallways at a T junction. He had only a few moments to look at it before a pistol shot whined past his head, scoring the wall in front of him. Taking cover behind the nearby corner, he heard the man that was arguing with Naomi earlier call out. "You're death will be long and hard if you run from me you false prophet!"  
"You're insane! FUCK OFF!" Isaac roared back, firing a round around the corner from his stolen pistol before rushing for the maintenance shaft he saw on the map.

After a short while, Isaac found what he was looking for, the maintenance shaft was slightly out of the way, along one of the main corridors of the orbital. Quickly glancing around, Isaac took a moment to set himself and look into the shaft. It was poorly lit and the maintenance panel was already opened. Still hyped off adrenaline Isaac failed to notice the deep gouge near the entrance before jumping down.  
Dropping into the poorly-lit shaft, Isaac immediately felt at home amongst the clutter. He knew that all maintenance shafts would undoubtedly lead to the main shaft that ran the length of the station. This was his one way out and he was taking it, no regrets. RIG suit charged and ready he stormed through the maintenance tunnel, looking for any sign of the large tunnel. At last he found it, rushing over to the entrance he immediately stopped dead. There, lying on the floor, was a severed arm. With a claw for a hand. It was surrounded in blood splatters and it was clear that whatever was leaking had been dragged deeper into the dark tunnel beyond. Walking up the tunnel he turned on his gravity manipulator built-in to the RIG suit for extra strength when he crushed the arm underfoot, hearing multiple bones crack and the flesh squelch in a way that took him back to the Ishimura, when he realized that he could kill the creatures stalking him.  
Peering into the tunnel ahead he noticed immediately that the lighting was sporadic at best and very dark.. He would have to go slow and careful whilst in there. Leaning down, he tore off the dagger like claw attached to the arm with a whine of servos and a slight grunt of exertion. Holding it next to his pistol in a way that would provide for easier strikes at whatever was in front of him, Isaac felt a strange calm overcome him. A feeling of determination and, oddly, completeness settled over him.  
Isaac Clarke stepped into the darkness.

The familiar feeling of claustrophobia, the sense of danger all around, darkness in front, poorly lit by his almost depleted flashlight and all consuming darkness behind. Possible monsters intent on feasting on his Jibblies in front of him, clear psychotic religious types above him with the intent of genocide with little he could do to stop them. The situation was shitty, Isaac new it but he was going to make the best of it. Walking in a straight line, the steady *clunk, clunk, clunk* of his boots making the only noise in the shaft, Isaac was waiting for it to happen. As it always did, these places were their favourite haunts. Those corpse like fuckers, hiding in the dark, pretending to be dead. Just waiting to jump out at you and rip your throat out. The memories came trickling back to him, of fighting with his life on the line, going toe-to-toe with immortal creatures of death that don't stop coming, of being lacerated and battered again and again. Isaac had thought it was all over, that he wouldn't have to deal with these fucking abominable creatures again. He was wrong of course, we humans just can't leave well enough alone, whether it's worshipping the monsters or trying to study them, we always put ourselves into the proverbial fire on purpose, only after oiling up first of course. These creatures, always stalking, hiding, slashing, hitting, always trying to kill him, always HIM. Come on then! Come at him now! Im ready for you! Im ready! IM READY! COME ON! ATTACK ME! KILL ME! JUST TRY IT YOU FUCKING MONSTERS! I'LL RIP YOUR GOD DAMN HEADS O-*clunk*  
Realising he had been screaming at the darkness to come and kill him, he felt a bit foolish when he found himself staring at the ladder up to the safe part of the orbital. As he put his foot onto the first rung, he heard something slither in the darkness behind him. Already keyed up on adrenaline he whirled around, claw and pistol at the ready. He saw nothing, as he steadily scanned the maintenance tunnel for movement. Cursing himself for wasting time and imagining things he turned around and began to climb the ladder. It wasn't until the claw exploded out of his right shoulder that he realised he was in trouble.

Hurled backwards into the darkness, the light from the telescience maintenance above illuminating the one armed creature standing before him, Isaac remembered to keep a death-grip on his weapons. Long hours of fighting on the Ishimura had trained that particular instinct deeply into him. Rolling with his momentum he lost sight of the creature and when he stood back up, ready to fight, it was gone. Quickly he scanned his surroundings, looking for the creature. He didn't properly see it earlier since he was shouting at the darkness to kill him but this area of the maintenance shaft was much bigger than the rest of the tunnel. Immediately he realised that this place was the Engineering Storage for the Telescience section of the station. There would be all kinds of materials and tools down here, and a quick flash of is flashlight confirmed that there was indeed a lot of metal things down there, a lot of big bulky things to hide behind as well. He knew the creature was still down there with him, the blood trickling down his shoulder was enough to attest to its reality. This was no hallucination he was dealing with, the crazy fuckers above had actually let one escape to down here.  
It's hunting me, Isaac thought, it will expect me to make a mad dash for safety. Wether back into the confines of the tunnel, a less likely option or straight for the ladder and up into the light. If I do either it would undoubtedly cut me in half. Therefore it has to be in a position to capitalize on my movements. Meaning it would be halfway between the two areas, as I am, nearby, waiting for me to let my guard down and make my move.  
Scanning the area once more, as well as congratulating himself on not pissing in his RIG and staying calm, Isaac attuned himself to his surroundings, the pain in his shoulder causing the pistol shudder slightly in his grip made this attunement a bit slow. He'd been in worse situations but not many. Bleeding, poorly armed to fight a thing that can only be killed by removing its limbs, and exhausted from the constant adrenaline and lack of sleep, he had to kill or disable this creature. The best way to do that is to surprise it, shoot it in its hiding spot and capitalize on the situation as best he could.  
Isaac continued searching, without moving from his location, until his flashlight outlined a vauge, body-like shape on the floor. Hesitating only a moment he lifted the pistol and fired. The shot illuminated the room and in that moment Isaac was able to see clearly. The dead, mutilated, Engineer, piled in a heap which he fired at and the monster itself rushing at him from his right, arm raised in a killing blow. Acting completely on instincts honed on the Ishimura and moving as fast as his RIG would allow he dropped down and shoulder charged the onrushing monster in the stomach, causing it to lose its footing. His right shoulder exploding in pain at the exertions and he barely maintained a grip on the pistol. As the creature quickly tried to right itself he fired into its torso as best he could, panic overriding memory, hoping to damage it sufficiently to slow it down. As the bullets forced the creature back the extra breathing room gave him a moment to think and remember. Slowing down, he raised the pistol and fired at the creatures head. At that moment the pain in his shoulder spiked to a new level and he jerked the trigger, the bullet falling down and piercing the creature in its shoulder. It's one arm was now partly disabled, realigning the pistol as best he could, fighting through the pain, he fired one more time at the creatures head, certain it would be a direct shot.

*Click*

The pistol was empty and the creature was readying itself for another charge. Its onrushing scream of guttural hate was met by one of equal force from Isaac as he threw away everything except his rage, once again he shoulder charged the beast, not before it could slice at his face, gouging a long furrow into his helmet and partly disabling the lighting emitted from it. Both, creature and man, fell to the ground, Isaac lucky to be the one on top. Dropped into a pseudo-darkness, Isaac knew that if the creature got away he was dead, with a scream of pure rage he drove the dagger like claw he had into the beasts chest to stop its movement, the creature was just as fast as Isaac, stabbing its claw deep into his left leg. Isaac barely felt the pain through the cocktail of adrenaline and rage his body was currently running off. Isaac stood, pulling the creature with him by the claw in its chest. Letting go Isaac stepped forward and enveloped the creature in a crushing bear hug, lifting it off the ground with the help of his RIG. Using every ounce of his suit-enhanced strength he crushed the creature ruthlessly, its arm dangling uselessly as shards of bones tore apart its spine. Letting go, the creature collapsed, lifeless.  
Bruised, battered, bleeding profusely from two very large holes, Isaac fell backwards and took a deep breath.  
"Not so tough now are you, you fucking thing." Isaac taunted  
The body twitched and Isaac was up in a flash, stomping it into paste. Each stomp punctuated by a curse or the word "Die" roared with such force it shook the walls.  
The effort proving almost too much, he collapsed once again, now CERTAIN the thing wouldn't be moving at least for a little while. Now that the immediate danger was past, Isaac saw that the flashlight he had dropped earlier in the fight now illuminated part of the wall. The wall had written on it in large letters "Engineering South" It was as he thought originally, it was the Engineering Suite for the Telescience sector. Isaac could undoubtedly build a varied assortment of dangerous toys using the tools and materials to be found here  
First things first, he had to stop the bleeding, the creature had stabbed clean through both his right shoulder and his left leg.  
Though possible, he realised it was probably a bad idea to weld himself back together. Remembering the maps from earlier he knew that there was a Medbay very close to the Security checkpoint. As well as maybe some ammo in the checkpoint itself. Resolving to return to the Suite after obtaining vital medical supplies he approached the ladder with a measure of trepidation. It wasn't going to be an easy climb.  
Every rung climbed was agonising, both leg and arm felt as if they were on fire. Blood leaked from Isaac in a steady flow; he knew that if he didn't get a move on he would collapse from blood loss. The realisation that his death was a very real possibility surged new life into the battered engineer. Finally reaching the top, he crawled out and tried to stand. The moment he placed weight on his leg, he collapsed, vision fading dangerously. The pain was too much of an overload to his senses, barely retaining his consciousness. It would be so easy to sleep, to fall, to simply stop but the thought of the unsuspecting people below him on the planet drove him onwards. He wouldn't wish the horror of the Marker on anyone. He was the only one that could stop it. That thing in the tunnel was only the start, even though he killed it, there would be more. So many more. Isaac made it as far as the corner out of the engineering area before his vision began to fade out. The last thing he saw were two white shoes coming to a hurried stop in front of him. He could hear slurred words being shouted and barely registered a hand rolling him onto his back. A blurred, bearded face came into view and Isaac blacked out completely.

* * *

Too exhausted to care about the nightmares, Isaac rose out of his stupor slowly. All his senses were deadened but slowly returning to normality. Sitting up and swinging his legs out from under him, he looked down at his half naked body to see the medical patches covering him. He was in a medbay of some kind. Looking around there were two things that stood out glaringly to him. His RIG suit was missing and he was staring at the broken, pasty corpse that was the Necromorph he fought in the maintenance shaft. It's squished, broken head faced him, empty eyesockets staring at him accusingly.  
"Fuck you! You tried to kill me you damn thing!" He croaked at the head. "You deserved it and more."  
Belatedly realizing that he was off his head on morphine, Isaac panicked slightly as he still had no idea where he was. Standing up was a challenge but he managed it, he looked around for clues as to where he could be. He found none but pocketed a scalpel just in case. Hearing footsteps approaching rapidly caused Isaac to take up a position besides the door. The door slid open to emit two people. A scientist and a guard, the guard immediately noticed that Isaac was missing from his bed and was just about to warn the scientist when he felt the scalpel press up to his jugular  
"Make a move and die, you psychotic bastards"  
Dr Clearke rotated around his axis to get a better look at what was happening behind his formidable girth. It would normally have been an impressive sight.  
"Mr Clarke? Whatever are you doing? Officer Manly here and I found you bleeding outside a maintenance tunnel, muttering about monsters in the dark and the tunnel itself. Chet here went into the tunnel and returned with this monstrosity. Did you actually kill this thing?"  
The little fat man was absolutely blubbering when Officer Manly made his move. Isaac, already distracted by the fact that someone was actually named Chet Manly, was having trouble realising that he was talking to his saviours. Manly, sensing his distraction and feeling the scalpel slip slightly away from his throat, ducked down and drove his elbow straight into Isaac's gut, winding him and forcing him to bend over, pivoting Manly's uppercut found Isaac's chin square on and knocked him out clean.

* * *

"Why did you do that Officer Manly!?" Dr Clearke blubbered  
"...Wasn't no right thing to do sir, holdin a man hostage li'e that." Mumbled Manly  
Dr Clearke sighed deeply, "Manly my boy, you need to learn to understand the situation, the poor fellow is clearly having a hard day. You breaking his jaw won't help any!

* * *

Waking up to a splitting headache is never a nice feeling. Waking up in restraints to the smiling face of the person who GAVE you that headache is an even WORSE feeling. Staring quite calmly at the glaring face of Isaac, Officer Manly looked quite happy to be in the company of someone who just threatened his life with a scalpel.  
"'e's awake now Docter." Manly drawled, acquiring the attention of the doctor immediately  
"Excellent, thank you Manly. Now then, Mr Clarke. Could you please tell me why you have two holes in your body, which I assume were created by the creature over there. In fact, could you also tell me that creature actually is? I've never seen anything like it before. Where the hell did it even come from? Don't tell me it already looked like that before you got to it, it's been dead for wee-" Clearke cut off, distracted by the phone ringing, just as he stepped to go and answer it Isaac shouted out,  
"Stop! Listen to me very carefully, I know how this sounds but there is a crazy as fuck cult at the other end of this Orbital called the Church of Unitology, they worship the machines that create creatures like that one on the table. They want to kill me or worship me I don't know for sure. What I DO know is I can't go anywhere near them and they HAVE a half-finished machine on THIS orbital. If you value all of our lives, if that phone call is from a woman called Naomi or anyone else on this place for that matter, do NOT tell them where I am!"  
By the time Isaac had finished, Clearke stood next to the phone staring Isaac in the eyes. With careful deliberation he picked up the phone and listened.  
Isaac's heart was pounding in fear as he waited for Clearke's decision to be made, the fate of Earth and humanity itself rested on what Clearke said nex-  
"Yes dear, i'd love some baked potatoes. Oh yes with the cheese sauce, very nice. Oh not much my dear, just a little business to attend to before dinner. Yes I will see you there. I love you too sweetums."  
Clearke, still staring Isaac in the eyes, carefully and deliberately placed the phone back down and slowly walked back over to the table.  
"Unitologists huh? On the other end of the orbital too. Oh dearie me. Well they don't come down here much. If they do they need my permission to enter. One way access doors sure are handy. Now I recall you mentioned the fate of Humanity? Manly my dear boy, go and put the kettle on. While we have some time, Mr Clarke, why don't you fill me in on, oh, everything?"

* * *

Naomi was, again, in a rage.  
"What do you mean you can't find him in our sector? He's an engineer! He's probably welded himself into a locker and is being dragged around by some fool assistant as we speak!" She shouted at the reporting security officer. "Check EVERYWHERE! Every maint tunnel, every locker, dorm, everywhere. We must find our prophet before he harms himself, or in his misguided actions, harms The Marker!"

The Security officer saluted and marched out of the office. Naomi turned and leant on the rail overlooking the almost complete Marker. She had to think and this place relaxed her the most. Many of the Unitologists consider the Marker to be divine, an extension if not the physical manifestation of god. Naomi knew better, the Marker could only create and converge, a true god could create and destroy. Naomi knew that her god was on board this ship, though it wasn't the marker. Her god was running around trying to destroy the Marker. He was also missing. He wasn't in the restricted sector, it was as simple as that. They missed something and now he had escaped and had the entirety of the rest of the orbital to hide in. Think damnit. Where would he go? He wouldn't go to ground in unfamiliar territorty. That leaves only one place, the area I originally tasked him with repairing. Telescience...

* * *

"-nd thats why the Markers must be destroyed. The Unitologists are fools who will kill us all." Isaac finished his revised story as fast as he could.  
"Well this could not have come at a worse time I can tell you that. I was just about to achieve a breakthrough in the field of space time manipulation. Im certain that a vacuum is what is needed for the field to properly affec-" Seeing the blank stares from both the other men, Dr Clearke continued huffing and grumbling into his illustrious beard. "All this psychotic cult business puts all my scientific work on hold. Damn it."  
"Once they realise where I am they won't stop at anything to kill me or capture me. No one will be safe. Not me, not Manly here, nor you or your wi-YOUR WIFE! Get her here quickly! As well as the others! We need to protect them!"  
"Oh don't worry about my wife. I doubt the cultists would tamper with a hologram just to get at me. My dinner can wait as well, the fate of Humanity on OUR shoulders? The very thought sets my blood afire with passion! Oh we must go and prepare for these foul invaders post-haste!" Bustling off faster than Isaac thought possible, Dr Clearke rushed out of the room. Leaving Isaac tied to a bed besides a still happy looking Chet Manly.  
Chet, seeing the stupefied look on Isaac's face leant over and undid the strap binding him.  
"Docter Clearke, 'e's a romaniticitht at heart 'e is." Mumbled Manly.  
Isaac, getting up slowly, rubbed life back into his restricted arms. Nodding slowly, Isaac asked where Manly stored his RIG suit.  
"It's down back in te place we gots you out of Mr Isaac. Mr Isaac. Im sawwy I hit you sir. You had me hostage is all." Apologised Manly  
"It's okay Manly, just lead me to my suit and all debts are forgiven."  
"Yessir Mr Clarke" Chirped Manly, happy to be of assistance.

* * *

Finding the light switch in the Engineering Suite was an easy task. Deciding what he should toy with first was hard. The Suite was a veritable plethora of gadgets, doodads and the occasional bitz. A cornucopia of Engineering Gold. 8  
"Mr Isaac? You's gone all big-eyed and stopped breathin." Manly nudged Isaac.  
"For a good reason Manly." Without further ado, Isaac got to work, repairing and reinforcing his RIG suit again as well as throwing together a collection of weaponry. All the while trying to think of what he could to destroy the Marker. He quickly realised that the only chance he had was to cobble together a makeshift explosive with enough power to completely destroy the Marker. This would take time however, time he knew they didn't have, not with the cultists breathing down their neck at least. This fact was compounded by a large explosion that thundered through the halls above. It seemed that Naomi had figured out where he went and had to blow through the one way blast door. She would know by now that the scientists of this sector were against her. It was going to be a bloodbath. He handed manly a large, heavy looking device.  
"Manly, listen to me, there may be monsters up there. I need you to help me kill them, they can only be stopped by cutting off their limbs. The weapon I just gave you fires saws, you don't have many shots but the stopping power is great. To use it you ju-"Isaac cut off a buzzsaw exploded out of the cannon and embedded itself deeply into the metal wall.  
"I thinks I gots it Mr Isaac" Manly stooped to pick up more saw stacks. "Le's go kill us some monstahs."

* * *

Motioning to Manly to stay a few steps behind, Isaac approached the first bend towards the Telescience entrance that separated Telescience from the rest of the orbital. The first steps he took around the corner found him face to face with half a dozen Unitologists, they raised their weapons in unison, in an attempt to kill or stun Isaac. Isaac couldn't know for sure, what he did know was that he had his home made unstable Arc cannon for a reason and that reason was DEATH.  
With a quick pull of the trigger Isaac was blown off his feet by the recoil of the device, the three energy cells he'd jury rigged to work in unison draining completely of charge. The blinding light and deafening sound that rocketed out of the tip of his weapon could only be described as the wrath of Zeus himself. When Isaac opened his eyes the entire hallway was painted in blood and blackened from burns. Metal was gouged out in long furrows for at least a dozen metres down the hallway and there was no sign of the Unitologists besides the bloody paste smeared everywhere.  
"See Manly? I told you to stay back for a reason." Smiled Isaac  
"Yessir Mister Isaac." Manly nodded happily

Dropping the now useless weapon he unholstered his rivet gun and began to move towards the Telescience lab where he knew Dr Clearke was. Destroying the Marker took a backseat to ensuring the immediate safety of his allies.  
"Manly, you keep an eye out for the monsters, I'll deal with the human ones." Without waiting for a comforting "Yessir Mr Isaac", Isaac set off to Telescience, ward in tow.  
They didn't run into any resistance, it seems that losing a large portion of her men in a single moment was causing Naomi to be much more cautious. Entering the Telescience lab they found Clearke working furiously on his machine. "Clark? Oh and Manly is here too, excellent. Now, do you have any plans for destroying this marker device?"  
"The plan was to ask you if you had any plans, Clearke. Im out of options and ideas here. I could cobble a bomb together but that would take too much time. The Marker would have constructed itself by then and would be impervious to the biggest explosion I could make given the materials we have on hand. We can't escape nor can we radio for help, I've checked and all that equipment is on THEIR side of the orbital. No doubt by now they have the whole area guarded. Trying to get in would be suicide. The maintenance tunnels are undoubtedly crawling with Necromorphs now, Naomi would have released all her toys to ensure I don't make it through there a second time. So im completely out of options" Isaac said dejectedly, admitting to the chance of defeat.  
"I don't have any ideas either Isaac. Im afraid we might be beaten here..." Clearke deflated. The room's atmosphere darkened steadily as the two men sunk into a deep melancholy at the thought of failing their task in saving humanity. Manly, however, remained smiling.  
"Why don't we jus' use the teleportah and teleport this marker thin' into the sun?" Manly Asked

"..."  
"Let's do that, Isaac"  
"Y-yeah"

* * *

"Thats IT" Naomi screeched. "We are going in their right NOW. Kill everything that gets in your way, EXCEPT Isaac! All of us are going!" surging to her feet, she beckoned to the remaining Unitologist. Some, including Mark, the man who so adamantly refused to believe Isaac was the prophet, were nowhere to be found.  
"Death is only the Beginning, we will bind Isaac to our cause and rejoice when The Marker takes us all! Be not afraid of Isaac and his associates for they are simply a test of our will! The death they give us will not be a true death, for when the marker is complete, we will be born anew as gods!" This rousing speech compelled the remaining Unitologists to their feet, they released their remaining test subject Necromorphs and moved together on the Telescience Sector. Naomi, at their head, could not contain her excitement at meeting her god once again and urged them on to move faster.

Isaac, waiting near the Telescience doorway as Clearke calibrated his machine, looked over to Clearke and said "I hope you know what you're doing over there." Clearke looked up from the machine and without a trace of irony said "So do I". This hardly encouraging statement was followed by a loud bang and a "Damn it all!" squeaked from the confines of the machine. Isaac quickly looked around the room and immediately noticed something very important. A Kinesis/Stasis module for a RIG. Just sitting to the side with a coffee cup spilt next to it.  
"Why is this here? What were you using it for!?" Demanded Isaac  
"Oh that old thing? It makes a nice coaster." Clearke called out  
Not bothering to express his outrage at the misuse of such valuable tech, Isaac placed the unit into his RIG. Immediately he used it on the coffee cup nearby, the sensation was just as he remembered it. A good thing he found it too, as he could hear the sound of his Saw Cannon being used outside as well as some screeching.  
Rushing to the door Isaac saw Manly standing in the centre of the single hallway, feet planted firmly, firing away at a gang of approaching Necromorphs. Several lay behind them in tatters, buzzsaws we're embedded along the walls, each had smears of blood on them attesting to the accuracy that Manly had. The man had an affinity for fighting it seemed. It seemed that the Necromorphs had hunted down the other scientists before assaulting the lab, Manly's somewhat pained expression showed that he knew some of the creatures he was now cutting to pieces with flying buzzsaws.

Quickly stepping outside, Isaac used his Rivet gun to add to the outpour of death, quickly mopping up the few remaining monsters. As the dust settled Manly and Isaac shared a moment of mutual manliness as they watched their monstrous victims twitch and shudder because of the amalgamation of metal pinning their various body parts to various sections of the wall.  
The bullet piercing Manly's chest put a stop to that and a moment later a buzzsaw put a stop to any more bullets.  
"Mr Isaac, my chest hurts, can I go see the doc?"  
"Yes Manly, go, now! I'll cover the door till you get fixed up." Isaac and Manly knew, that wound was going to be fatal, Clearke wasn't a medical doctor and there was no one else around to help. Manly was leaving to say his peace to a dear friend.

For some reason, Isaac burned at the thought of Manly dying, he had to take a moment to steady himself and concentrate on the fight ahead. Leaning behind a protruding bulwark he was hidden from sight for a few minutes. This apparent absence of physical resistance was all the remaining Unitologists needed to charge out into the open and rush for the Telescience lab. Isaac, hearing their rush, overloaded the stasis module, stepped out and fired an enormous wave of energy down the hall. The dozen or so remaining Unitologists who survived the fight with the resisting scientists and marauding Necromorphs were stopped in their tracks. Knowing he didn't have the luxury to take it easy, Isaac's shots were quick and efficient, each Rivet from his gun piercing through the eye of a cultist until they were all dead. Once the stasis wore off Isaac stood alone, amidst a hallway littered with corpses and pieces of corpses. Turning on his heel he marched into the lab and found Manly sitting against a table with his eyes closed. Isaac had a moment of silence for the departed Manly then went over to Clearke. Clearke was clearly attempting to hide his grief at losing a friend and Isaac had no intentions of ruining his attempt.  
Turning to Isaac, Clearke said "The machine is calibrated, all you have to do is press this red button here for it to turn on and it will generate a field of negative energy behin-" Isaac interrupted the Doctor.  
"If it works, why don't we just use now? He asked, moving over to the button, he was stopped by Clearke's hand grabbing his shoulder.  
"There are realms of physics still being mapped by new generations of physicists Isaac. I can't tell you exactly why we can't use it as it is without explaining to you several newer fields of physics. All you need to know is that at the present, the teleporter is calibrated to move the ship a huge distance, well beyond its safety limits that I theorised long ago and it can only be used in a VACUUM. As in, exposed to space but still attached to the ship! I haven't been able to test these calibrations before and even I don't know whats going to happen for sure. All I know is, the entire station will move and very, VERY far.  
"Why didn't you calibrate it for the sun?!" Exclaimed Isaac in anger, that was the plan after all.  
"There is no time for that Isaac, calibrating this machine takes a very long time, we have to go into the minutiae of physics and space-time itself to do so. These calibrations were my next test, the only option we have left is to change a tiny number of the calibrations to only teleport the Marker device, even then it would take hours to properly calibre-"  
Clearke was stopped suddenly by a bullet entering and leaving his skull. Naomi slowly stepped into the room with a gun pointed at Isaac.

"Step away from the console please, My Lord. We have to get you to the Marker for the joining ceremony" A wild, crazed look in Naomi's eyes seemed to have settled there permanently.  
"Im not going anywhere with you, you crazy bitch! You want to murder the entire human race for the advancement of your delusional religion. You are a power-hungry monster with no regards for others!" Isaac shouted at her, reaching for the button on the console.  
With a loud BANG Naomi fired the gun, the bullet tearing a hole through Isaacs stomach through and through. The reinforced armour of his RIG doing little to halt the Armour Piercing rounds Naomi were using. The pain was incredibly, barely managing to stay upright, Isaac gasped in agony. He'd been stabbed before, a few times actually but now he knew why old army men always said that gutshots were the most painful type of wound.  
"There there, my sweet prophet, we can't have you ruining all our effort now can we? Come along and we will become as one before the eyes of The Marker" Naomi giggled, the manic look about her not leaving for a moment.  
"Never, you crazy, bitch." Isaac managed to get out, between gasps of pain. The next bullet went through his unhurt shoulder. Whilst not as painful as a gutshot it still hurt terribly.  
For fuck sake, Isaac thought, that's both arms now.  
Naomi looked genuinely crushed at his rejection. That sadness quickly turned to an insane anger. "If you don't wish to be mine, then you shall be no one's!" she cried, aiming the next shot at Isaacs head.  
So this is what finished me, Isaac thought, A crazed cultist shoots me in the head with a gun. After all he's been through, Isaac couldn't help but laugh. "How mundane" he whispered to himself.

"MR ISAAC" A voice roared in defiance of death, Chet Manly, apparently returned from the grave, tackled Naomi to the ground. "USE THE TELEPORTAH!" he thundered as Naomi fired shot after shot into his gut until the clip was empty. Isaac seized his chance and smashed his hand down onto the button. The machine began to online and a loud rumble could be felt throughout the entire orbital. Standing up, Naomi kicked the now very dead Manly away from her, once again she was covered in blood. Her appearance was framed by a window to space, Earth in the background, the sight at once both grisly and beautiful.

The machine beneath Isaacs hand continued to spin over and over but would not catch. Nothing happened. Nothing continued to not happen. With a triumphant laugh Naomi taunted Isaac.  
"Your machine doesn't work, you are out of weapons to defend yourself with, unless you've got something secreted about that big, pocketless RIG suit of yours, and you can barely stand. Your only options remaining is to surrender and become mine, or die." Naomi gloated, eyes glazing over slightly at the thought of joining together with Isaac for an eternity using the Marker.  
At the mention of secreted weapons, Isaac's thoughts turned back to the beginning of all this madness, seemingly years ago, where he remembered implanting a hidden, single shot, high density plasma cutter into one of his RIG's arms.  
Suddenly looking up at the woman framed by the window, he smiled, the dangerous glint in his eyes all the warning Naomi got before he fired. The plasma shot flew straight and true, right over Naomi's shoulder, only ruffling her hair.

Just as it seemed Naomi would laugh in triumph once more, she noticed that Isaac's RIG was engaging it's helmet. She whirled around to the window just in time to see it explode outwards, the air being expelled taking her, as well as anything else not nailed down, with it.

Isaac, having engaged his Mag-Boots before firing and using his RIGs servos to maintain a death grip on the solid, bolted down machinery around him, waited for the atmosphere to equalize before moving. The air escaping quickly from the holes in his RIG suit. He could feel the machine at his front finally kick over and achieve whatever it was that Clearke designed it to do. A moment of ultimate weightlessness, disembodiment and nausea later, and the machine powered down. Hopelessness quickly settled around Isaac's shoulders as he realized they had failed. The marker was still in orbit above Earth. Standing up Isaac looked out the exploded window. He noticed instantly, Earth was no longer there. There was nothing there, they were floating in dead space.

Isaac activated the emergency window panels and the room was no longer exposed to space. Atmosphere began to once again pump into the room. Isaac stood alone in the lab, aboard yet another ghost-ship full of murderous demons intent on his death. The thought ate away at him, eternity amongst the dead with not a soul to find him. They were beyond the reaches of known space now. Isaac couldn't rest yet. No, not yet, not while there was still work to be done.

Patching himself up with a nearby medkit he once more he off to the Engineering Suite where he set about making the largest bomb he could, as well as repairing his rig and making some new weapons to kill the remaining Necromorphs. Days later, after creating many traps and tools to fight off the constantly reforming Necromorphs Isaac stood before the Marker, covered in the viscera and fluids of the last Necromorph guardians, intent on making an end. He had no desire to die with a thing of such evil however. So Isaac set the bombs timers and began to section off that part of the orbital. He spent a good few hours closing all the bulwarks and doors to ensure a that as little atmosphere as possible escaped from the area he had settled in as well as re-arming the many death traps he had placed, just in case some Necromorphs decided to rush him before the bombs went off. Starvation and Madness wracking his body, he finally settled in at the Telescience lab and waited for the explosion. He was rewarded a scant few minutes later with a rumble that reverberated throughout the entire station. At last, with Isaac's true enemy defeated, he was finally able to rest.  
Slowly drifting away, eyes closed, exhaustion preventing them from opening again for whatever reason, content to let an eternal sleep take him to the void. He failed to register the sound of static coming from his RIG's radio:

"-&amp;Bzzt&amp;\- This is the SSV Normandy answering distress beacon in the Tau Ceti Sector, unidentified vessel, please respond. Unidentifie- Commander this is a ghost ship, why are we here?–  
We're here because the Salarians registered a tear in space on their deep-space scanners. You said you registered a large scale explosion moments before we arrived, give me a damage report on the ship.  
It doesn't even look like a ship Commander, I don't see engines or anything similar to propulsion. The explosion caused minimal damage, I'm sure that much of the structure survived and can you please explain to me why we are heading to an exploding ghost ship without eng-  
Joker.  
Alright captain plotting a course now.  
Scan for life signs.  
Its a ghost ship Commander, I doubt we'll find anything, EDI, run a full scan for lifesigns anyway.

Please?  
Running scan. This is odd, Commander. Im reading several life-signs as well as large amounts of biomass centred around the area that supposedly exploded. There is a single life sign as well on the other end.  
Good, Jack, Garrus, gear up, you're coming with me, we'll enter through the damaged side of the ship. -&amp;Bzzt&amp;-"

CH1 END


	2. The Dead Will Rise

**Ch2: The Dead will Rise**

Space has always been beautiful in Shephard's eyes. The formless, weightless void has been a source of comfort for him on many occasions; he would simply sit in the comfort of his cabin, staring into the endless expanse and feel a peace settle around him. That peace was now noticeably absent as he floated towards the mysterious hulk his ship had detected. Hulk being the right word to use here, Joker had said it and Shephard had noticed it; this "Ship" lacked any sort of propulsion. This behemoth was as large as a Turian Battleship and yet had no armament; it wasn't a carrier-type ship as the only discernible docking areas were basic extension clamps and there were only a few of these at that. Major, as well as minor, hull breaches could be seen from the outside; the largest of which Shephard and his team were entering into. Shephard was beginning to see it more and more as a ghost ship, the few life-signs they had detected previously settling his nerves somewhat.

The entrance was torn and jagged, large pieces of metal and foundations strewn across it; preventing shuttle access. There was almost no doubt in Shephard's mind that the explosion that caused it was military-grade, it was simply too strong to be cobbled together from spare parts. With shuttle access prevented, the Normandy crew had to resort to older methods of boarding derelict ships. In their airlock, in a hidden retractable compartment, rests a harpoon-like weapon, simply attach it to a rope protruding from the Normandy's hull nearby and fire it at their entrance. Shephard was now leading his team of four as they half climbed, half floated towards the hull breach. The hulks electronic systems were down so entrance via one of the docking bays was impossible.  
"I think Joker was right...this place doesn't feel...good." Garrus grumbled into his radio.  
"Aww c'mon now Scarface, don't get scared of the itty-bitty ghosts" Jack mocked.  
"Give me a real enemy Jack; and I'll gladly kick their asses for you. What if we find something we can't feel though? Something we can't shoot? I don't like it." Garrus retorted.  
Before Jack could jump at the chance to mock Garrus more, Jacob spoke up.  
"I gotta agree with Garrus; I've seen things like this before, before and after I joined Cerberus. Ships that get lost out here; shorted out electronics, engine failure, outlaws. Most of the time the ship is full of corpses. Blue-faced if they ran out of air, blood smeared everywhere if they ran into outlaws." Jacob pauses for a moment, considering his past and continuing his journey towards the hulk in front of him. "Once... Once we found a ship completely empty. It felt so devoid of life that no one wanted to take anything, everyone was getting stressed, freaking out, so we bugged out. Destroyed that damn thing and got the hell out of The Terminus System. We had a few suicides after that, damn kids still green behind the ears, thinking they can be hardcore mercenaries. You get that some times, ghost ships I mean, suicides too but that's not important. I've never seen a ghost ship THIS big. Wonder what's in it." Jacob seemed genuinely intrigued in learning what secrets this new ghost ship held.

Jack, Garrus and Shephard steeled themselves for what they might find. Meanwhile, Tali was at the rear of the team, muttering curses under her breath in her own tongue, trying to calm herself down. Jacob's monologue hadn't helped her none and she had a feeling he may have been doing it on purpose. She hated being in open space, the silence was the worst. She was so used to hearing the loud machines of the Flotilla, it had taken her awhile to adjust to the Normandy's almost silent engine, yet there was still a dull, low whine and occasional clunk that comforted her though. Not so in Space, all she had was the sound of her own breath and the feeling of a few millimetres of fabric and metal separating her bare flesh from the freezing cold and life destroying vacuum which was constant in her mind. As she crept through the jagged entrance, the thought of one of the razor sharp pieces of metal piercing her suit was almost too much to bear and she almost didn't make it through. She looked ahead, however, and saw Shephard releasing the rope and forging ahead, determined and ready. As usual Tali drew strength from this human who had her deepest respect and she managed to push through. As she passed through, she realized that her fear had made the danger far more large and real then it actually was, the closest piece was at least two meters away.  
As Tali finally touched down, Shephard radioed Joker. "Away team on site, releasing boarding apparatus, Joker, reel it in." Immediately Joker replied  
"Aye aye Commander; why don't you call it by her name? Betsy cares not for your formal words!" Chuckling good-naturedly, Shephard watched as the hook-no, "Betsy", retracted without incident.  
"Alright Joker, "Betsy" is home safe and sound. Stay on station."  
"Aye Aye Commander" Joker replied, EDI barely heard in the background  
"Jeff, I must insist you desist in giving the tools onboard the Normandy names, especially ridiculous ones at that"  
"Aw, EDI, all they need is a little love, surely you agree that machines need love just as much as us meatbags-"  
"Joker you're still on the radio" Shephard interrupted  
"Oh. Sorry Commander"  
"See Jeff, having to keep track of all these named machines must be distracting yo-" The radio cut off and Shephard turned to the rest of his team. Immediately, he saw that the underlying tension they had all been feeling was gone, Joker's behaviour being a source of comfort and normality to the team. Taking a moment to survey his surroundings he saw that they had entered above and in front of a large, semi destroyed structure, black with blood red lining, the structure stretched upwards, intertwining with itself. Behind it was a simple, unadorned wall and in front of it, past Shephard and his team, was an observatory window jutting out above them. Below that was a closed bulkhead door set in the centre of another unadorned wall, this was the only entrance and exit. Beckoning to his team to follow, Shephard moved for the door. As he came closer to the door, Shephard began to see the true extent of the damage caused by the explosion.  
The door and all the walls we're scorched and warped, large sections of the walls blown outwards by the explosion. Shephard arrived at the door, feeling glass from the shattered windows above crunching under his feet, and tried to find a way to open it. Unable to make any sense of the unusual console nearby Shephard motioned to Tali to come ahead and get it open. Within a few moments Tali had figured out the console and ran into a very large problem.

"Shephard? There isn't any power, we won't be getting this door open anytime soon without proper tools" She said  
"Damn it, alright, I'll radio Joker, see if he can get us some welders over here." Just as Shephard was about to activate his radio, there was a strong pulse of red light from behind them. The team whirled around, weapons raised, in time to see the structure's red lining fade completely to black. The team whirled around once more as they heard the door sliding open, they got a view of a long corridor, dark blood caking the walls, before the lights faded to darkness once again.  
"Okay. This is creepy" Garrus rumbled. Shephard half expected to hear Jack pipe up once more but she was surprisingly quiet, Jacob was the one to speak next.  
"I've never seen anything like this before, not on a "ghost ship" I mean, it's like a warzone. Raiders and Outlaws are lucky to have one heavy weapon between them but what we've seen so far hints at a large scale battle between two heavily armed forces." Jacob said, not afraid; simply seeing this place as a puzzle to be put together and understood.  
"Alright." Shephard said. "We've got survivors to save. Keep your eyes peeled, stay alert and don't get snuck up on." He once again moved to the front, the strong light from his weapon and helmet illuminating the path ahead.  
They walked in silence for awhile, only finding dried blood all over the walls and floors, no signs of survivors of whatever it was that happened other than the weak life-signs they saw before coming aboard.  
"How did it get on the roof?" Jacob asked, staring upwards at streaks and smears of blood spread out in places along the metal overheads.  
"You see it sometimes, on The Citadel; some poor bastard goes crazy with a blade, cuts up their partner or friend. It's such a brutal attack that the blood gets everywhere, even on the roof. You don't get blood on the roof from a gunshot Shephard, not unless you're up close" Garrus spoke up, glancing at Shephard, concerned at what this might mean.  
"So we're looking at Krogans then? They love getting up close and personal." Jack said, trying to make sense of what the others were saying.  
Garrus shook his head. "No, not Krogans. Think about it Jack, Krogans are damn tall, they like beating their enemies down. The only way to get blood on the roof with a gun is to get underneath the victim, otherwise you're using a blade." Garrus sounded grim.  
"Ninjas?" Jack said, excited. Garrus chuckled  
"No Jack, not ninjas. Someone with a blade though. I think what we're looking at here is a mass murderer who liked blades but that doesn't make sense." Garrus said, trying to make sense of it all.  
"Why doesn't it make sense Garrus?" Shephard asked, concerned.  
"Well, look around you Shephard, if it was just one man using blades you'd expect he was attacking unarmed civilians. Look at the walls here and here, scorch marks from an energy weapon. Down there, over there, bullet holes and a lot of 'em." Garrus replied, concerned and confused.  
"So we're looking at a lot of men who liked blades with a few who preferred more conventional weaponry?" Shephard asked.  
"That's the only explanation that can make sense here. Expect whatever it is that's going to come at us here to get up close and personal." Garrus confirmed, checking his assault rifle to ensure nothing was wrong.  
Shephard nodded, he and Tali pulling out their shotguns, Jacob doing the same as Garrus. Jack looked unconcerned, checking her nails and enveloping her hands in biotic energy.

"Let's go" Shephard said firmly.  
As the team rounded a corner, Jacobs light fell upon the distinct shape of bodies lying on the ground.  
"Shephard!" He called, moving ahead. "We've got bodies here!" He rushed forward, weapon and light scanning his surroundings, making sure he wasn't walking into a trap. He'd seen it happen before after all, damn rookies. As he finally made it to the bodies he shined his light on them.  
"GAH! FUCK!" Jacob shouted, at once surprised and disgusted by what he saw.  
"Jacob?! What is it?" Shephard called, also moving forward. The team spread out, wary and alert by Jacob's distress.  
"Come...Come and look at this Shephard. Tali stay back." Jacob said, his voice wavering a little but firming when he told Tali to stay away.  
Shephard approached cautiously, not sure what to expect.  
Nothing, not even the Reaper Husks, could have prepared him for the grisly sight that awaited him. At first he flinched away but he forced himself to look at the corpse. Or what was left of it. The body was emaciated. It's dead, mortified flesh clinging to unusual bone structure, cuts and contusions covered it's body completely. It's lower jaw had split open straight down the middle and the bone had been extended; jutting out through the skin, sharpened into points. Small wisps of hair above sunken, empty eye sockets. Protruding from its chest were two tiny arms, weak and atrophied. Flaring out to its sides, like wings, were two triple jointed arms that connected from behind the shoulders. These arms ended in bone that looked as sharp as steel with a small, childlike hand beneath it. It's legs were thin, ending in clawed feet.  
"What is this thing Shephard?" Jacob asked, disgusted.  
"I don't know Jacob, but I do know it didn't just keel over and die, look at it, it's got wounds all over it." Shephard replied in equal distaste.  
"I don't know Shephard, sure it's got a lot of cuts and bruises but I don't see anything that could be fatal" Jacob retorted.  
"I do," Jack chimed in. "Look at its chest, it's been crushed by someone stomping on it. I know what to look for. I hung with a pirate crew for awhile before you met me. Their boss was big on stepping on people, literally, just to let them know he was a "big man". They aren't around any longer." Jack was grimly satisfied by this fact, her mocking of the "big man" implying she had a hand in their demise. Looking at the body a second time, Shephard and the others saw the indentation of a boot on the its chest, they were so busy looking at it they weren't able to notice that the things entire chest was flattened significantly.  
"Stay alert, I don't like the look of this thing and if there are more that are alive I certainly don't want one sneaking up on us. I certainly don't want to run into whatever it was that KILLED this thi-" Shephard was cut off by a startled "Eep". Tali had crept closer during the conversation and had finally gotten a good look at what they were standing around. She pointed at the corpse and said  
"Look...Look at the ground underneath it"

The rest of the team looked for a third time and they saw to their horror that a pool of brown sludge had collected around the creature. It appeared to be connected to the body in some way. Garrus realised it first  
"Gross, it's melting Shephard. Look, its skin is slowly sloughing off. That's why we can see bones. I knew it wasn't wounded in any way I'VE seen before, I just didn't know what was causing it." Garrus stepped back, away from the sludge. "Shephard, let's get moving yeah?" He said.  
Shephard agreed and the team set off, leaving the grisly sight behind. Tali was now close behind Shephard and had a tight grip on her shotgun  
They came to a T-junction and saw a map on the wall. Inspection revealed that it was a map of the entire hulk, the team now had a name for it as well.  
"Joker, look in the Alliance database for anything called the ESO Inara. We're in the aft section of the ship, around the middle if this map is correct. Tell me where the life-signs are in relation to our position" Shephard radioed  
"Yes sir, Commander. You're a level above and a hundred meters to the fore of their position."  
"Roger that Joker" Shephard replied. Checking the map, he found a staircase down and the team moved off towards it. The hallways were full of blood and brown goop, just like everywhere else. Once more they came to an intersection and Jacob came to an immediate stop, halting the rest of the team.  
Shephard watched as Jacob tensed up instantly and began rapidly scanning the surrounding area, the rest of the team saw his tension and did the same though they did not find what he was looking for.  
"Shephard come here." Jacob's curtness was unusual but Shephard let it slide due to the stressful situation they were in. Jacob was standing directly in the centre of the hallway with his arms out to his side, fingers pointed, slowly circling in one spot.  
"What is it Jacob?" Shephard asked, concerned. He knew Jacob wouldn't act this way unless he had a good reason. Silently, Jacob began to point things out Shephard. Burn and scorch marks, bullet holes, gouges and pockmarks all around them, each mark was gouged in a direction away from where they were standing.  
"Someone stood here and made a last stand against something Shephard" Jacob whispered. Jack, who was nearby asked  
"Why is this important?"  
"It's important because whoever it was survived if not won the fight. Look where we are standing, it's the only patch of ground not covered in blood or that brown sludge. Look at the sludge, it's pooled all around us but nowhere near this area. If those corpses decompose by melting then we can assume that someone stood here and kicked a whole load of ass. If this guy is still around he could be dangerous." Jacob concerned. This was enough for Shephard, Jacob rarely gets concerned.

Looking around they could see, scattered through the brown goop, skeletons and bodies still in the middle of decomposing. It became clear that there were a LOT of them  
"I'm agreeing with Jacob on this one Shephard, that thing didn't look friendly and I sure don't want to be on the receiving end of one of those claws. I'm doubly sure I don't want to be on the receiving end of whatever is bad enough to KILL these things." Garrus stated calmly.  
"What? Pussing out Garrus?" Jack taunted.  
"No Jack, you put me against these things or whoever killed em and I'll fight, I'll fight hard. I just don't want to have to." Garrus replied.  
"Regardless of what is waiting for us, we have people to save." Shephard reminded the team. "And we ARE going to save them. Let's go, the staircase is this way."  
Coming down the stairs, Shephard came upon a strange scene. Strange in the fact that the area was spotless, no blood, no brown sludge, no marks on the walls from weapons fire. Nothing was out of the ordinary and that fact caused the entire hallway to appear strange, a stark contrast to the apocalyptic halls above. Stepping forward Shephard looked for an area that the survivors could be hidden away in and quickly finds an airlock door that had been welded shut. From the outside.  
"Well that's wierd." Garrus said.  
"Ya think?" Jack said mockingly.  
"Look up Shephard" Jacob said grimly. Shephard did so only to see a grisly sight, blood and brains and bits of skull splattered the ceiling, looking around he could see drips and drops of blood on the floor as well but no body to be found.  
"This ghost ship is beginning to piss me off" Jack growled.  
Just as Shephard was about to step up to the Airlock, Joker radioed back  
"Commander, I've searched the Alliance database, Turian Database, Citadel Database hell I even searched the Salarian database. Nothing at all about a ship called the ESO Inara. There were a few bits of crap but nothing about a ship or a station. The place you are on doesn't exist in any database we have access to and we have access to a LOT of databases."  
"Spooky" Garrus chipped in  
"Thanks Joker, I think we've found the survivors. Hold radio for now." Shephard replied.  
After a moment, Shephard stepped up and hammered on the airlock.  
"Is anyone in there? Are you okay?" He called. No one answered so he hammered again, harder this time. "Hello in there! Can anyone hear me?" Shephard was about to turn and order them to break through the door when he heard a table fall over and a loud crash. Several thuds could be heard coming closer to the airlock when I panicked voice shouted out  
"Hello!? Can you hear me!? Oh god please get us out of here!" The voice was full of fear and Shephard could easily imagine someone on the other side shaking as they shouted out.  
"Yes we can hear you, who are you? Are you alright?" Shephard called through the airlock door  
"My name is Mark! Please get us out of here!" The voice, Mark, replied  
"Us? How many of their are you?" Shephard inquired  
"Thirteen including myself; nine men, four women."  
"Okay, we'll get you out of there" Shephard shouted. Turning to his team he said "Tali, Jacob, stay here and get them out. I'm sure there are EVA suits around on a place like this, get them into them and get them out to the Normandy. Worst comes to worst we'll just blast the entrance until its clear enough for the shuttle to land." Turning back to the Airlock door he shouted through. "Can you tell us what happened here Mark?"  
"A psychopath has been killing everyone!" Mark cried, "We had to barricade ourselves in here because he hates us for our religion!"  
"Do you know anything about these monster corpses out here?" Shephard asked.  
"I don't know! I'm just a priest and my flock are simple people, please! I beg you! Get us out of here!"  
"Okay! Don't worry my team will get you out of here. There is another life sign farther port. We'll be ba-" Shephard was cut off by the priest shouting out.  
"No! Don't go get him! That's where the Psychopath is living! He'll kill all of you just like he managed to kill more than half of my flock. The man is a danger. If you meet him you should kill him immediately!" The priest was almost apopleptic with anger and Shephard supposed he had good reason to be if what he said was true.  
"Nevertheless," Shephard called back, "we cannot pick and choose who we wish to save, we are here to help everyone. What's this "Psychopath's" name?"  
The priest was silent for awhile before replying.  
"His name is Isaac Clarke."

* * *

"Isaac Clarke huh? Not really a name to strike fear into a bunch of religious types. Oooohhh~ Im Isaac Claaaaarke~ Im gonna murder youuu~" Jack said mockingly, walking in step to a tune of her own divising. "Still scared of the "Psycopath" Garrus?"  
"I told you before Jack. I'm not scared, simply concerned."  
"You are SO lying!" Jack laughed. "Such a pussy!" She could hardly breathe from her laughter. Garrus gave her the Turian equivalent of raised eyebrows as well as "The Look".  
"I'm not the one trying to hide my fear by insulting my teammates Jack." That shut her up. For a little while at least, before Jack could retort; and Shephard new she would, he spoke up.  
"Stow it, the both of you. It should just be a straight walk down here. Then we'll be in this section called "Telescience" where this Isaac person apparently is. Keep an eye out for him, we don't know what he might be like or whether he's hostile. The priest said he's an engineer and uses modified mining equipment as weapons. Expect anything from him." The priest, Mark, had told Shephard a fair deal more about Isaac, reiterating many times on how he is a dangerous individual, as well as stating he had a degree from the "CEC" whatever that was. Shephard was confused and when Mark tried to explain, barely masking his own confusion at someone not knowing what the CEC was, Shephard figured Isaac was simply an Engineer with a good knowledge base.

Jack forged ahead of the other two, snorting in disbelief. The corridor they were in had less blood stains then elsewhere and almost none of the brown sludge they had been finding constantly since entering the station.  
Shephard was very confused why someone would build a station out in this deadspace pocket, where there was no recorded annual traffic at all. He was also confused why someone would name it the "Earth Space Orbital" Inara, as well as being confused HOW they managed to build it without anyone knowing. It wasn't Alliance and it certainly wasn't Cerberus if Jacob's information was correct. Shephard's thoughts were interrupted by a derisive laugh from Jack.  
"He's an Engineer Shephard, a civilian, he'll probably shit himself the second he see's Garrus' face." Jack derided. Shephard and Garrus shared a "look" and just smirked at Jacks behaviour. They both knew if she truly didn't like either of them then they would be dead and the Normandy would either be under new management or scuttled.  
Jack was getting further ahead and entered another large intersection. "I just don't see how this guy can be dangerous, what the hell worth are mining tools in a firefight?" She mocked. Jack stormed around like she owned the place, kicking trash over and laughing at the idea of Isaac being a threat. What she didn't see was the trip wire that she triggered that was hidden amongst the debris. A soft whine of power cells charging up could be heard and, to their horror, Shephard and Garrus saw blue laserpoints aiming at Jack's back from above and behind her, above the entrance to the intersection. Shephard shouted out but it was too late to do anything to help her. Jack, alerted by Shephard's shout, whirled around and immediately followed the blue lasers to their origin. Garrus and Shephard saw Jack's eyes widen as they heard a rapid assortment of thunks and whirrs followed by two very loud bangs. A quick gasp of indrawn breath from Jack was all they heard before she threw her hands up and enveloped herself in a thick semi-circle of biotic energy. Garrus and Shephard saw two flickers embed themselves in the barrier, aimed directly at Jack's chest, the flickers came to an immediate stop and they were able to see that they were in fact javelins, with some strange sort of attachment on their back end. Shephard saw Jack relax after a moment and was about to let the shield fall when he heard an electrical build-up occurring from the centre of the room, where Jack was standing.

"Jack! Look out!" He roared, expecting more traps. Jack tensed up and enveloped herself fully in the shield, just in time. With a powerful scream of energy, lightning exploded out of the attachment that Shephard had noticed earlier. Garrus pushed Shephard to the side and dived for cover himself, just in time to avoid an arc of lightning that gouged its way through where they were standing. The lightning stopped and was followed moments later by two loud explosions, a thud and a muffled curse. Standing up, Garrus and Shephard immediately surveyed the scene. The room was a mess, the metal wall and floor plating was gouged and blackened everywhere, two semi-spherical blackened and scorched dents in the metal floor marked the spot where Jack had been standing, no doubt caused by the explosion they had heard only moments earlier. Jack had been thrown into the wall by the concussive force her biotic field failed to contain. Before Shephard could ask if she was okay she rose to her feet slowly and steadily, a raging purple gleam in her eyes.  
"Shephard..." She growled. "He's mine when we find him." With that, she strode towards the entrance to Telescience. Garrus and Shephard shared a moment of pity for Isaac then followed her, wisps of purple energy floated around Jack, occasionally warping metal or stirring debris as her rage made her biotic power nigh-uncontrollable. Looking at a map, Garrus told the team new info about where they were heading.  
"Where we want to be is right at the end of the corridor we are on now. The only problem is there are plenty of those intersections like the one where Jack got caught. The entire way in is probably booby-trapped to high heaven, it's definitely going to be slow going Shephard." At this he glanced at Shephard, as though worried how he might take it. "We'll have to carefully check every inch of each room and corridor. It's going to take awh-" He cut off as they both felt an immense pull of biotic energy. Jack, her eyes blazing with an inner purple light, the air itself warping around her from the strength of her biotic power, hurled a wave of energy down the entirety of the hallway, triggering every trap that was lying in wait. It took several minutes for the final explosion to fade away, the three had to turn away from the glare of the explosions and when they looked up the hallway again they saw was a plethora of destruction. Chunks of metal were torn up from the flooring and the rest of it was blackened and gouged by lightning and shrapnel.

Jack; eyes dimmed from a bright, explosive purple to a duller, darker tone, emitted an animalistic growl and swept forwards towards the door to the main lab in the Telescience area, which was purportedly Isaac's main base. Shephard and Garrus moved quickly to catch up, they wanted Isaac alive after all, Garrus' longer legs getting him ahead of Shephard. Jack didn't waste time opening the door by kicking it open with a biotically empowered foot, the airlock door blasted inwards and rocked on its hinges. Maniacal laughter filtered through the screeching of the metal that chilled the trio. Wreathed in purple lightning, Jack stepped into the room followed closely by Garrus.

* * *

Isaac was so very hungry; he hadn't eaten anything in days. He was seeing things too, things that shouldn't be possible. Necromorphs still moving around even though the Marker was destroyed, he knew it was destroyed even if he hadn't returned to the room it was contained in. He wouldn't return. Ever. Not even if *she* asked him to. The Necromorphs just stood in the shadows or skittered around, he could see them out of the corner of his eyes always. That's what all the traps were for. They kept the Necromorphs away. The traps didn't keep *her* away though. She kept coming to him, telling him to go back to the Marker, saying it needed him. Saying it deserved his love; he could still hear her whispered lies. She had been standing in the corner of the room, facing away from him, if he looked at her she began twitching, jittering and turning slowly to face him. Isaac didn't want to see her face so he looked away and she immediately stopped twitching and slowly faced the wall. He hadn't seen her arrive, she was just suddenly there in the corner, twitching, Isaac knew that whatever she was, if he saw her face something terrible would happen. He didn't know what and he didn't want to find out; there were a lot of things Isaac didn't know about her. What he did know was this;  
Naomi was back.

She had been in that corner for what felt like days, Isaac couldn't sleep and the hours stretched abnormally long. Isaac felt as though his blood had been replaced with pure adrenaline, his hands would start shaking and the only thing that stopped it was when he held a weapon. For a long time he hadn't been able to tell the difference between reality and hallucinations; having all the lights on helped for awhile but when the power went out the hallucinations returned a thousandfold. Naomi had always been there though; a sort of hazy, twitching, blurred outline when the lights were on, she solidified in the darkness and kept trying to meet his gaze. Once he lost track of her completely only to find her standing directly next to him, twitching and slowly turning to face him, her skin creaking and crackling as it moved, stretched taut over elongated bones. He went and stood in a corner himself for hours. He heard her moving behind him, heard the crackling of her flesh, felt her breath on the nape of his neck at times. It was worse when the growling started. Far away at first but getting steadily closer until it was a loud roaring right beside him. Activating his RIG's helmet didn't help at all, the sound cut right through it but just as Isaac felt his knees buckling, just when he thought he was going to break, when he knew he couldn't take anymore, the sound stopped. Daring to hope, Isaac risked a glance behind him.

Only to feel that hope die as he saw she was back in a corner. As soon as his eyes touched her she began the twitching and turning all over again. Isaac couldn't handle it, not anymore, so he huddled in the centre of the room and put his head between his legs, trying to rest.  
It didn't work. The thought of her being in the same room as him, twitching and creaking, was too much, he couldn't hide from her forever. She would follow him everywhere he just knew it, the only thing that he could do was face her and kill her again if need be. It was just so hard to look at her long enough for her to turn around fully. Every time he came near to catching a glimpse of her face his courage failed him. Every time he saw the hint of her red rimmed, smiling maw he looked away. He knew if he saw her eyes she would become real, he didn't know how or why, he just knew she would. For hours he tried, each time getting closer and closer to facing her fully and each time, he failed. This could not go on any longer; he had to stand and face his demons while he still had the strength in his body to do so. This creature taunted him of his insanity with its very presence; each twitch a reminder he was going mad, doomed to die alone on a cursed, blood-soaked station, his only companions the ghosts of the dead howling on the winds. Feeling his rage at this hallucinogenic intruder from another world building; he surged to his feet, Javelin gun in hand, and faced her, his eyes afire with a zealous fury. His anger burnt away his fears, his exhaustion, the room gained a red tinge as an almost uncontrollable blood lust seized him in its grip; maniacal laughter echoed in his ears as Naomi slowly turned to face him. Any fear he might have felt was immediately burned away by his all-consuming, unlimited and seemingly sourceless anger and hatred, this creature was something he had to face and absolutely destroy. Naomi's skin tore as she turned, her bones and muscles protesting at the insane angles her body was being forced accommodate.

The hysterical cackling reached an awe-inspiring crescendo, Isaac could feel blood beginning to pool in his helmet beneath his ears. Naomi was now completely facing him, however, her head was down. Shoulders shaking out of sync with the all-invading ever present laughter, Isaac watched with slight trepidation as her head slowly raised and stopped just before he could see her face. With a loud SNAP of breaking bone her head jolted upwards and to the side, her face was something carved out of corrupted, mouldy porcelain by a devil on a bad acid trip. A gaping, smiling maw lined with razor sharp, dark, crystalline and translucent teeth as well as two empty eye sockets of slowly swirling darkness above a gaping rotted hole where her nose should have been. The things eyes locked onto Isaac's, even through his helmet he could feel those pools of darkness invading his very being. His arms moved almost of their own accord, fuelled by his draining anger; they raised themselves, still holding the Javelin gun, and pulled the trigger. The first Javelin pierced her chest and pinned her to the wall, stopping her from coming any closer. It didn't stop her horrible, horrible smile nor did it prevent her eyes from invading and devouring his soul, wanting to put a stop to this, he fired another Javelin and this time it entered her skull and pinned it backwards into the corner. Still the eyes followed him; still her smile cut away at him as though they were razors upon his flesh; still, the all invading laughter screeched in his ears. Clutching his head Isaac screamed and laughed and gibbered as he felt the last vestiges of his sanity fleeing from the wretched sight that was he. Just before the last strings of reality detached from him, the doors to the room exploded inwards and he was bathed in glorious golden light. Framed within that beautiful light was a harbinger of wrath, lightning arcing around her; Isaac knew immediately that this was an angel come to save him from himself and that angel had taken the form of his lost love. Before he could reach out for help he saw, to his unfathomable horror, a tall, unusual looking Necromorph with a scarred face and small bones jutting out of the back of an elongated head approaching quickly behind the Angel, no doubt intent upon harming her and stopping her from saving him. Isaac knew he had to save her, he knew that he had to protect this bringer of light even if it caused his death. Raising his Javelin Gun, he roared her name in defiance of everything that stood against him and fired at the creature.

* * *

Bursting into the room, ignoring the wailing and screaming coming from within, Jack had a few moments to take in her surroundings. Two things stood out to her, the first was the reportedly, and now undoubtedly confirmed insane, engineer Isaac Clarke; standing in the middle of the room clutching his head, gibbering and screaming as though he had looked into the abyss and the abyss hadn't just looked back, it had skull-fucked him with a diamond edged dildo. The second thing that Jack was able to absorb was the corpse of a mutilated, eyeless woman pinned to the wall in a corner. It was clear that her corpse had been ravaged and repeatedly mutilated. Two titanium spikes held her up, one through her chest and the other through her skull. Her jaw hung slack and her teeth had been smashed from her mouth, the few that remained were so broken they looked like fangs. Her skin was cracked and ravaged from clear space exposure, broken bones jutted through her skin where she had been brutalized. One of her legs ended a ragged, bloody stump and her arms where dislocated and forcibly lengthened.

All this, Jack took in before the filth encrusted figure in the middle of the room noticed her entrance; once he did, he stood rock still for a moment before reaching for her in an almost loving gesture, mumbling someone's name. Jacks readied herself but just before she could use her power Isaac's head snapped to the side and looked over her shoulder seeing something behind her; with an unearthly scream that emerged from the tortured depths of Isaac's very soul he snapped his arm around and fired a Javelin at her. She was roughly pushed aside and heard a thud, a squelch and a grunt as the Javelin pierced flesh; glancing behind her she saw Garrus holding his shoulder in pain, glaring at Isaac and growling slightly in anger and pain.  
Jack whirled around, her clothes flaring as she gathered all the power she could. Eyes ablaze with an uncontrollable fury at the person that hurt her comrade and she grabbed Isaac with a fist of Biotic energy and hurled him into the wall with such force it dented the metal deeply. Stepping forward, arms surrounded by purple lightning, intent on tearing him limb from limb, Jack was stopped by Shephard grabbing hold of her.  
"No Jack, I want him alive to interrogate him, the only other survivors we have are priests and civilians, the station engineer should know what we need to know." Shephard said, trying to reel in Jacks anger with reason. Jack stared at Shephard for a long time until she whirled around and hurled all her energy at the opposing wall, shattering it completely and tearing a hole through several corridors and severely denting the last wall when her energy ran out.

"Fine." She growled, her voice controlled and the fury in her eyes subsiding. A malicious look crossed her face and she said "I'll carry him." Before Shephard could think of a reasonable excuse to say no to her she had picked Isaacs limp form up and was carrying him back the way they came.  
"Man up Garrus, it's just a flesh wound." She said to Garrus in an unusually toneless voice as she passed him.  
Grimly he pulled the Javelin out and let it fall to the ground. He glanced at Jack as she stormed past, then shared a look with Shephard. They both saw how she reacted to him getting hurt and Garrus appreciated her hidden concern. The walk back was uneventful, aside from the occasional *clunk* of Isaac's limp figure "Accidentally" smashing into things. Halfway back to their place of entry Tali radioed in.  
"Shephard, there weren't enough EVA suits for all the survivors so we had Joker blast the entrance wide enough for the shuttle to enter and land in the room. When Jack arrives we'll need her to extend a biotic field so we can all leave. Until then we are waiting just outside our point of entry for you."  
"Roger that Tali." Shephard said, relaying the info to Jack who nodded her acquiescence, "We have Clarke and are bringing him back now." Tali acknowledged and signed off.  
"Could we hurry up Shephard? Losing blood here." Garrus said; Shephard mentally kicked himself for not doing this earlier and stepped over to Garrus to seal his wounds with Medi-Gel.  
"Sorry Garrus, It's inexcusable" Shephard said, shamefaced.  
"It's okay Shephard, you've had a lot on your mind lately, besides that I didn't even know you had Medi-gel otherwise I would have said something earlier." Garrus laughed good-naturedly. Once more they set off and the return trip was uneventful so they made good time. When they arrived at their point of entry they came upon Tali and Mark arguing about something, Tali with Jacob standing menacingly, caressing his rifle as he scanned the people standing in front of Tali, thirteen people stood in front of them with Mark at their head. It immediately became clear what they were arguing about.  
"I will not have my flock endangered by the presence of that psychopath! I demand you leave him here to die, if not kill him outright! The man is a danger to everyone and everything around him, he has killed and mutilated countless hundreds in his rampages! The very fact you are insisting we let him live his, in itself, a crime against humanity and the very Goodness evident in all of us!" Mark said, at once aghast and angered at what Tali had told him. Mark was a priest and was a good orator as well as conversationalist, however, Tali was having none of it.  
"My commander has issued his orders and I WILL follow them, I don't care what your past experiences with the man might be, orders are orders." At this she drew herself up to her full height, which admittedly wasn't as grandiose a pose as she might have liked, trying to force Mark to back down through sheer tenacity. Mark wasn't swayed but before he could speak again Jacob spoke up, "I have complete and total faith in the Commander and if he says that the Engineer is on his way and isn't a risk to anyone then I believe him. You should too, since we are the ones rescuing you right here and right now. It seems a bit ungrateful, even disgraceful, for you to be second guessing the man who decided you were worth saving." This left Mark unable to respond and he was stared down by Jacob. None of the three had noticed the new arrivals until one of the clergymen nudged Mark and pointed Shephard out. Mark saw Isaac being casually held aloft by Jack on one side of Shephard, it was clear from her posture she was doing it after all, taken aback by this casual manipulation of space and time; it still wasn't enough to prepare him for what was over Shephard's other shoulder.  
There, standing calmly, was clearly an alien species in armour and holding a weapon. It was either an alien or a horribly disfigured human but Mark didn't think that that much mutilation was possible, even after all the things he had seen and done in his tenure as a clergyman for Unitology. What was even stranger was the way Shephard and his team acted in complete normalcy around it. Realising something even more horrifying his head snapped back around to Tali, he had assumed that she actually WAS disfigured and wore the suit as a sort of shroud to hide her shattered frame. Now he thought he had been conversing with an alien species for the past thirty minutes without even realising it and he didn't know how he felt about that. Before he could speak one of his cohorts opened their stupid mouth and burbled,  
"What the fuck is that thing?!" Mark turned and saw, to his horror that the idiot was pointing directly at the creature beside Shephard. Sometimes he prayed his closer associates were a bit sharper of mind, clearly the creature was an ally of Shephard and possibly a close one at that, offending it was probably a bad idea.

Garrus, to his credit, was mildly amused. He leant over to Shephard and whispered  
"I think they mean me Shephard, they're acting like they've never seen a Turian before and you saw how he looked at Tali." Shephard nodded in agreement then addressed Mark.  
"Garrus here is a Turian. What part of the galaxy have you come from to have never seen a Turian before?" He asked reasonably. Immediately the man's face lost all expression and he was silent as Mark stepped in to answer, not before Jacob gave Shephard a significant look, no doubt he had sage mercenary advice or experience to tell him later.  
Mark hesitated only a second before answering, plastering his best winning smile onto his face. "Why, we are from Earth! The centre of humanity, my friends and I are important members of Unitology and you will be well rewarded for saving us. " It was clear from the glances he was giving Garrus and Tali that he didn't know how to react, he also saw the looks of confusion that crossed their faces at the mention of Unitology and the fact he said they were from Earth. Shephard cut in with a question.  
"I'm not sure I'm familiar with Unitology. If you're from Earth, surely you know what a Turian is?" He held up a hand to forestall further comments and said, "You can tell me more when we are aboard our shuttle heading to the Normandy." He paused a moment to radio Joker, "Joker. Send the shuttle in now, we're returning to the Normandy."  
"Aye Aye Commander." Came Joker's reply. Nodding, Shephard turned to Jack and asked  
"Are you up for this? I'll carry Clarke in if you just make a corridor to the shuttl-" Shephard wasn't even finished talking before Jack was shaking her head.  
"I'm too tired to make a corridor like that, I can make a small bubble and escort everyone across a few at a time but then I'll be out of action for awhile. You think I can throw all this power around without needing sleep or food?" Jack snorted. Shephard shrugged and agreed. Jack took the survivors across three at a time; Garrus remained with her throughout it just in case and Shephard brought up the rear with Isaac slung over his shoulder. The shuttle had to return and offload once before returning and Shephard told his crew to set the civilian survivors up in the dorms. Once everyone was on board, Isaac was moved to the medical bay and is strapped there until he regains consciousness.

* * *

The door to Shephard's cabin slid open with a barely audible hiss of sound and he trudged in, exhausted from the day's work aboard the station. Jacob had pulled him aside and brought up the moment where Shephard had asked the man who had asked what Garrus was a question. He pointed out that it takes training to be able to switch off visual cues at a moment's notice like the man did. It was clear that they weren't ordinary civilians and that Mark was their de facto leader, they were all extremely fit, not a one had any sort of visible disability. Allowing the possibility that the civilians were anything but what they said they were to sink in, Jacob warned Shephard to be careful and reassured him that he would keep an eye on them. Shephard thanked Jacob and was about to leave to go sleep when Tali accosted him. She had tried to access the stations database in her spare time and had found something curious. Not only were the encryptions very strong a large amount of the data had been purposefully destroyed, she wasn't able to tell when but assumed it had something to do with the outbreak of death and madness. She was able to find a crew roster and three things stuck out to her. The first was that a large number of the crew where marked as "Security" which implied the station was researching something that required a lot of muscle and the second major find was that Isaac Clarke had only arrived very recently aboard the station. The third, most confusing thing she found was the dates.  
"Shephard, if this data is correct then the inhabitants of that station were using the human calendar set three hundred years ahead of our current time. I can't think of a logical reason for it. You might want to ask the civilians individually, split them up away from Mark and get answers from them they might not ordinarily give. There is something very wierd here Shephard."

Shephard agreed and ordered Kelly to spread the civilians out as much as possible in the dorm rooms, to try and keep them separated. With all that done, he had finally been able to retire to his cabin. Stripping off his armour, he collapsed onto his bed and stared at the ceiling. There was a lot of unanswered questions floating in his mind and he was going to get to the bottom of this mysterious station and her crew. Tomorrow.  
Right now, he wished to sleep. As he closed his eyes and felt sleep slowly take hold of him, he wondered with a smile what Kaidan was doing. 

* * *

"All we want is some simple answers to some simple questions." Garrus said to the stone faced man seated across from him. They were in the observation room, Garrus was seated with his back to the wall, enabling him to look out into the endless dark sea of the void, pockmarked by the occasional beautiful star. Garrus and Kelly were chosen to do the interviewing of the survivors, Garrus for his experience as a C-Sec member and Kelly for her experience as a psychiatrist. They had already interviewed half the survivors and they were both met with nothing but a stony silence the entire time. Even the frailest looking of the women had refused to open up, they all seemed to have backbones of steel. No matter what tact the two seasoned interrogators tried it was all met with a solid resistance, as though it was muscle memory for the survivors.  
"What's your name? What was the ESO Inara's main function? What caused the catastrophe we saw evident throughout the station? What was all that brown sludge? Our own scientists found traces of human DNA throughout it." Garrus stared at the man; still no sign of anything, no hint at a crack in the veneer of silence. Sighing deeply he continued for a few minutes more before realising he wasn't going to get anything from him.

"Okay. Time to get you back to your room. Thank you for your time." Garrus stood up and extended his hand. The man also stood, hesitated then shook his hand with clear distaste. It happens, sometimes, Garrus thought. Xenophobia was around, though the Council did its damned best to stamp it out with inter-species relations campaigns years ago. It affected all races to varying degrees, his own was guilty of it on occasion. Humans showed a remarkable capacity to accept things outside their own society as well as a remarkable capacity for hatred. This dual mentality often put them at odds with other races. Pondering the oddities of mankind, Garrus escorted the man back to his room then moved on. This one was unsurprisingly stone faced and Garrus resigned himself to another fruitless endeavour in the observation room.

An hour passed, an hour of unending boredom as silent men and women sitting stock-still in the chair opposite to him until at last he was at an end. One woman remained to be questioned and he stood in front of her door. Knocking gently, he looked forward to having this whole business completed. The door slid open to reveal a slim, tall figure in a tank top and sweat pants, outlined through the clothes was a toned, lithe body, accustomed to hard physical work. Luscious, reddish orange hair framed a pale, freckled face with gloriously green eyes above a diminutive nose. Garrus was shocked to see a small, somewhat excited smile shining on her lips. So far everyone had been completely blank and toneless in everything they did so this small change was magnified a thousandfold.

"Right this way please ma'am, straight to the observation room." Garrus said, stepping aside and holding out a hand behind him. Nodding, she stepped past him and headed towards the observation room, long strides getting her there quickly. Not even waiting for Garrus she strode straight in and immediately stopped dead in her tracks, staring out into the stars; the architectural style of The Normandy highlighted Space in such a way as to cause newcomers to pause and feel their heart flutter at such raw beauty. This woman was the only one out of all of the civilians to pause in wonderment at the sight, all the rest had simply strode straight to their seat and sat down; it became clear to Garrus that she was different in some way.  
"It's beautiful isn't it?" Garrus asked, enjoying the sight of void, "Turians might be seen as militaristic and unapproachable by the other races but we do enjoy our stars. The Citadel boasts one of the best observatories in the galaxy, all are welcome there but the vast majority of their patrons are Turian and Human." His calm, reasonable voice was toned and measured to be as relaxed as possible to try and put her at ease. Turning, the woman gave him another small smile then went and sat down at the desk, Garrus moved over and took his seat with his back to the wall.  
"Now," he said, "all we want are some answers to simple questions. Are you willing to give us some?" he asked, hoping for an answer.  
"That will depend on the questions." She replied calmly. Garrus felt his eyes widen slightly, it was the first time one of the survivors even hinted at being able to answer any questions he had.

"Okay, we'll start off small. What is your name and where are you from?"  
"My name is Claire, Claire Hunter and I am from Earth." She said and before Garrus could ask another question she blurted out, "What are you? I saw that our rescuers were used to you but you're the first contact with an alien race humanity has ever had!" Garrus was slightly taken aback by this and paused for a moment before answering her seriously.  
"I'm a Turian, we've been part The Council for a long time and we police Council Space and operate as the Councils backbone military. Surely you should know this since the human race has been part of the galactic community for decades." The look of utter shock on her face was enough to let Garrus know that something very, very strange was going on. The strangeness only got worse as Claire began speaking

"That can't be possible, you're the first alien race we've ever met. Ever. After centuries of hoping for first contact, we gave up." She sat back in her chair, looking dejected. "Humans stopped training for first contact and it became a far-flung dream, rarely considered. I don't understand why you are saying we've been part of the Galactic Community; we've never seen your kind or any other kind of race besides our own before." Claire finished and the look of wonder was back in her eyes. Garrus decided to let it slide, if she wanted to fake ignorance then that was her prerogative and he decided to move on to his next question.

"Tell me about the ESO Inara. What was its purpose and how did it get built out here in the middle of nowhere without their being a paper trail in any database in existence?" He asked.  
She started in surprise at the implication that the station wasn't in the Earth's orbit.  
"The ESO Inara is an Earth Space Orbital built in the atmosphere of Earth and is recorded in the CEC database." She replied, looking confused. "How can you not know that? We're still in Earth Space. I mean, there was that wierd feeling of nausea and distortion awhile back but it wasn't the same as a shockdrive so I know we didn't move." Once more, Garrus felt like she was toying with him. Slightly irritated he reiterated a question.  
"What was the stations purpose?" He asked. Claire, sensed his irritation and clamped down on her excitement. Measuring each word, she replied.  
"Simple biological research for the most part. There were a few other research departments but I wasn't involved in it." She stopped and it was clear she did not wish to say any more. Garrus, glad to have some kind of information to give to Shephard, moved on.  
"What was your job aboard the station?" He asked. Claire once again hesitated a moment then said in a matter of fact voice.  
"Security." Garrus waited for more but none was forthcoming so he decided to forge ahead.

"Security? A research station focused on biology needed security? Okay that's somewhat believable; however what isn't believable is the fact that a large majority of the crew rostered onto the station was marked down as "Security". Why would your station need so MANY guards? What were you really doing?" He rapidly asked, ending on an accusatory note. Claire was slightly taken aback by this but clammed up fast. Her face fell into the clear, silent manner that the rest of the survivors had exhibited. Garrus tried to ask a few more questions but it was clear she intended to keep quiet. Thinking back on what she had said earlier about being in the atmosphere of Earth he asked Joker to announce through the observation rooms speakers where they were in relation to Earth.  
"Good evening ladies and gentlemen," Joker said in his best airline pilots voice, "We are aboard the SSV Normandy in the Kepler Verge, several thousand million whatever light years from Earth. If you direct your gaze outside the ship you will see we are in fact orbiting a gas giant for no real reason other than it's pretty." At this, Joker slowly spun the ship to show they were, in fact, orbiting a huge, pink, gas giant. Garrus didn't need to see Claire's widening eyes to know she was shocked.

"But... Th-thats impossible! How could we have moved so far without using a shockdrive?" She hung her head in her hands, trying to think. In only a moment her head snapped up and she whispered  
"Unless...Telescience! The crazy bastard did it." Garrus heard her whisper and cut in immediately, trying to use her confusion to his advantage.

"Telescience? What's Telescience?" He asked. Claire responded immediately, without thinking.  
"It was one of the science departments run by Dr Clearke. It was for the manipulation of space and time-" She cut off abruptly, realizing she was letting slip too much. Garrus leant back in his chair.  
"The manipulation of space and time eh? I guess that explains how you, your friends and that station ended up way out here. Anything else you would like to add?" He asked, expecting and receiving a dirty look alongside silence.  
"Very well," Garrus said, "Thank you for your co-operation today. My associate Kelly will be visiting you soon to assess your welfare as well as ask you one or two more questions. Please allow me to escort you to your room." With what passes as a smile, he stood and gestured towards the door. As they walked back to her room, Garrus knew he had to go visit Mordin and ask him a few questions regarding space and time.

* * *

"Surely you've thought of this before Mordin? The manipulation of space and time? What a scientific wonder that would be, the person who achieved such would undoubtedly have held the galaxies scientific communities highest respect." Garrus said, slightly miffed that Mordin had dismissed the matter out of hand.  
"Lifespan too short for forays into scientific madness. Considered and rejected idea long ago as unfeasible. What with Krogan Genophage alongside other pursuits manipulating spacetime held little interest."  
"So you've never considered it beyond a few scant moments?"  
"Like I said. Short lifespan. Practical implementation of theoretics only to have it fail would have been great waste of time and effort. Why sudden interest in scientific theory Garrus?" Mordin asked.  
"One of the survivors, the only one who even spoke to me, accidently let it go that part of the station we found them on was devoted to "The Manipulation of Space and Time". She implied that the only way for them to be where we found them was if the head researcher for that department had a breakthrough and brought them here. It doesn't explain the strange liquid we found all over the place though she did say that the majority of the station was devoted to "Biology". In any case I think we are looking at something no one has ever experienced before; naturally I came to the best Scientist I know for help." Garrus said, completely serious. Mordin knew Garrus wasn't trying to be a kiss ass and simply stating a fact, nonetheless he appreciated it. "All I want to know is whether it's possible.

"I'll look into the theory Garrus. Come back soon." Turning to his lab Mordin bustled off, leaving Garrus to think of what to do next. He didn't want to bother Shephard with a half cocked theory built off the verbal missteps of a young woman and since there was no other survivor willing to talk he couldn't corroborate his theory. All the other survivors besides Mark were tight lipped; Mark himself refusing to give out any information other than simple platitudes and misdirections. Thinking about it, there WAS another survivor that no one had talked to yet, battered and bruised on a Medbay table, probably concussed and maybe with internal bleeding.

Perhaps it was time to wake him up and get his story.

* * *

"I am concerned about Claire sir. She has always been too sentimental for our line of our work." The stone-faced man said to Mark. "It seems she has been talking to the...alien... even when your expressed wish was for us to remain silent. I believe we should remove the problem, and soon, before it develops more."  
Mark remained silent as he contemplated his second's words. He knew that Claire had always been a loose end to be tied up, she was, as his man was saying, far too sentimental. The "tying up" would have to wait however, there were currently too many variables. Leaning back in his chair, Mark steepled his fingers and gave his second a level look. The man's left eye was missing; his bald head was scarred from an explosion years ago. Standing tall at six feet he was powerfully built and oversaw Mark's more specially trained militants and their operations. He had worked with Claire a few times and had remarked repeatedly on a hidden softness that would be her undoing and was a danger to the cause.

Thinking on Lorn's words, Mark nodded in agreement  
"A situation will present itself Mr. Lorn. We need only wait and act when the moment is opportune. Claire will learn the error of her ways, even if it kills her. As always, you have my permission to remove any threats to our cause as soon as you can." Mark said, malicious intent writ large across his face. Lorn stood and bowed with grim satisfaction at the prospect of Claire's elimination; he had always felt that she was a hidden threat, too weak internally to do what must be done when the going got tough. He made to leave for his own room to meditate and prepare; he would be needing the help of the other operatives, Claire might be weak internally but she was one of their best agents and he knew he would need help. The door slid open with a neat *click* and Lorn's grimness slid away to reveal a manic excitement at the prospect of the approaching fight.

* * *

"You want to what?!" Shephard said in alarm.  
"I want to wake up that engineer and interrogate him Shephard." Garrus reiterated. "I haven't gotten anything out of any of the other survivors except for that young woman Claire and even that was just simple superficial information. The only thing theory about them I've managed to think of that makes any sense is so ludicrous you'd think I'd gone insane just for mentioning it!" Garrus' irritation was present in his voice, it was clear that his inability to properly investigate the situation was getting to him.  
"Garrus, right now any theory is better then what we have. By that I mean we have nothing. Garrus. Nothing." Shephard said, awaiting Garrus' response.  
"Okay then Shephard, okay." Garrus finally said after a few moments pause. "I finally got one of the survivors, Claire, to speak..."

* * *

Dr. Chakwas sat in her chair, reviewing the medical reports she had compiled on the survivors so far. The man buckled to the table beside her had not stirred since his arrival and had remained instead in a rigid, unmoving posture; the complete stillness was actually somewhat unnerving to think about so she kept her mind on other things. Other things like the brainwave readouts showing from the patient next to her, the bed he was on was an extremely high tech piece of equipment and had an assortment of medical machinery embedded inside it; The Normandy was the best ship The Alliance had after all and had the best equipment. At first it was just usual brain activity for a sleeping man; well, a sleeping man having nightmares at least, but after awhile the machine began to increase and vary in unusual patterns. Suddenly the machine began to record the patient's brainwave activity with an almost frantic urgency and then flatlined. Shocked, Dr. Chakwas stood up, knocking her chair over in the process, and rushed to the patient to check his pulse, knowing that the only brains that didn't show any activity were dead ones. Immediately, she found it, roaring through his veins like a Vorcha on speed. Nonplussed, she checked his pupils and found them so dilated that his irises were almost invisible. Surprised by the seemingly unnatural nature of the brainwave stoppage and subsequent pulse increase, Dr. Chakwas tried to get a reaction by shining a penlight into the patients eye only to receive nothing in response.

Dr. Chakwas felt a strange tension grip her as she peered into the dilated eye of the patient, eyelids held open by her own hand, the silence in the room was absolute. Nothing moved; nothing made a sound. It was so silent, the tension so palpable, that Chakwas felt the first thing that made a sound would be destroyed utterly. Chakwas felt her own pulse quickening as she gazed at the black pool that was the patient's eye, an all-consuming dread settled upon her shoulders and she slowly picked up the beds remote control and prepared to hit the "Sedate" button. She knew not why she did this, irrational fear was guiding her actions; she recognised this and attempted to stop herself from sedating a sleeping man. It was during this silent self-struggle that a *scritch* of noise seemed to explode into the silence, shattering it utterly. Frozen in place, Chakwas slowly turned her head to the Neurologic machine nearby and saw that a single "pulse" of activity was registered. Glancing back to the patient she saw something that completely shattered all semblance of self control; the dilated eye she had been examining had changed, the pupil had retracted so far as to be almost invisible and the eye had rotated slightly to stare at her.

Staring back, Chakwas felt the tiny pinprick of darkness that was the patients pupil look into her very soul. She felt an almighty oppression and couldn't move out of fear; she stood there for what felt like an eternity, staring into that tiny blackhole, that gateway to an endless realm of titanic, Lovecraftian monsters... As she stood, staring, she felt something "shift" in her mind and that was when the silence was once more shattered by an explosive outburst of *SCRITCH SCRITCH SCRITCH* from the Neurologic machine nearby. The patients eye seemed to slowly expand, becoming larger and larger until it filled her vision; she felt her world slowly slipping away as the pupil began to expand, jagged, bloody teeth slowly extruding from the rim of the iris intent on her demise. All around her was a whirling maelstrom of red madness and Chakwas felt her mind fraying, until she felt a familiar solidity in her hand. There, with her thumb hovering over the "Sedate" button, was the Neurologic's remote control. Her thumb pressed down so hard she felt her fingernail almost pop off and a wail of otherworldy cyclopean proportions exploded around her, the eye began to recede and the maelstrom of blood, bones and madness reached a crescendo of noise and movement before dissipating completely. As Chakwas came to her senses, she realised that she was still holding open the patients eye; however it was no longer looking at her and the pupil had returned to a normal size. Shuddering, she quickly stepped away, falling over her chair. There, shaking on the ground, she stared at the now serene face of her patient as the Neurologic began to slowly *scritch* away as his mind returned to normal.

She didn't know for sure what she had just experienced, a sort of triggered hallucination to be sure; and she didn't know what caused it. What she did know was this.  
Isaac Clarke wasn't whole.


End file.
